Crowd of contenders seeks seats on council

Former Miss America, Muslim lawyer to run

Orlando’s 2017 elections have already drawn a crowd of candidates, including a former Miss America, the grandson of a longtime commissioner and a lawyer who could become the first Muslim American to serve on the City Council.

Though voters won’t go to the polls until Nov. 7, the races for Districts 3 and 5 have begun to take shape.

Asima Azam, a real estate attorney for the Divine & Estes law firm, filed paperwork last month to run in District 3, which includes College Park, Baldwin Park and other nearby neighborhoods. Azam, whose father immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan, said it would be a “wonderful thing” for the Muslim community to have representation on the council, but that’s not why she’s running.

“I think the district is changing dramatically,” she said, listing traffic congestion, crime reduction and urban planning as priorities. “I don’t know that the leadership has changed with it.”

District 3 is represented by Commissioner Robert Stuart, executive director of the Christian Service Center who will be seeking a fourth term this fall.

Stuart declined to discuss his opponent or priorities if re-elected, as he has not yet formally filed to run this year. But he said he was proud to have helped guide the city during his current term, especially in the aftermath of the massacre at Pulse nightclub.

Though the city clerk’s office doesn’t keep record of the religious affiliations or cultural heritages of commissioners, Azam said she believed, and the Orlando Sentinel’s

archives suggest, she would be the first Muslim to sit on the council.

While Azam is Stuart’s only opponent, District 5 Commissioner Regina Hill already faces four challengers: Ericka Dunlap, Cynthia Harris, Jibreel Ali and the Rev. Stovelleo Stovall.

The district, which includes Parramore and other west Orlando neighborhoods, will soon be home to the Orlando City Soccer Club’s stadium and other projects that proponents argue will drive prosperity. But some critics argue they are gentrifying the area.

Dunlap was crowned Miss America in 2004, after earlier becoming the first African American woman to be named Miss Florida. She has since founded a public relations

firm.

“Looking at the climate of the presidential election, it’s obvious to me that there’s room for people who truly want what’s best for an under-served population of people,” she said. “I feel like District 5 is Orlando’s most dynamic district.”

Both Dunlap and Harris, a longtime community activist, cited the need to create jobs for local residents and ensure that development on Orlando’s west side serves its residents.

“I’ve always spoken for the invisible,” said Harris, who ran and finished third in 2014, the year Hill was elected to her first term. “Win or lose, I’ve always done that.”

Ali is the grandson of Mable Butler, who served on the City Council from 1984 to

1990, before becoming Orange County’s first black commissioner. He declined to discuss his candidacy before his campaign’s official launch.

Stovall, pastor of God Is Able Outreach, said he hoped to emphasize job training for young people as a means to discourage crime in the district, which has been beset by gun violence lately.

Hill said that would also be her top priority, if reelected.

“My major focus will probably be youth jobs and training,” she said.

Hill touted an uptick in community engagement during her first term, as well as the influx of affordable housing projects in varying stages of development that she helped get approved.

“I really am proud of the fact that the community is now engaged,” she said. “There are so many of those that have connected with my office that are doing the work … [with] boots on the ground, when it comes to social programs.”

Reaction to development could prove a factor in both races.

In District 3, some remain rankled by The Princeton at College Park, an apartment complex approved over the objection of an organized group of residents, who argued it was too large.

Mary Travis, former president of Rethink the Princeton, said the group plans to meet with Azam and anyone else who decides to run against Stuart, who voted in favor of the project.

“It’s bigger than anyone ever imagined,” she said of the complex, which is under construction.

She said Stuart “did handle it in a way that didn’t sit well with so, so many, people.”

Stuart said the land on which The Princeton will sit was “always designed to have a greater level of development,” and the city received concessions from the developer to limit its impact, like additional commercial parking spaces and driveways.

District 1 Commissioner Jim Gray is also up for reelection this year, but has not yet filed to run and has yet to draw an opponent.