It was a little more than a year ago when Hillsborough County Commissioners killed a plan to create a fifth single-member district, a measure backed by Hispanic advocacy groups. But one of the only two County Commissioners who supported the plan, Democrat Les Miller, said he will again make a case for the change at a board meeting next month.
The current commission consists of four single-member districts and three at-large, the latter meaning commissioners represent the entire sprawling county of approximately 1.3 million people.
Speaking to the Hillsborough County GLBTA Democratic caucus at J.J.'s in Ybor City on Wednesday night, Miller said that Hillsborough is the only Florida county with more than a million people that includes at-large districts. Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach and Broward strictly have single-member districts, and in some cases have nine board members to Hillsborough's seven.
"It's time to bring government closer to the people," he said, referring to the fact that in his single member District 3 seat he represents more than 315,000 people, not far off from the 350,000 or so that Bob Buckhorn represents as mayor of Tampa.
This article appears in Mar 14-20, 2013.