EATONVILLE, Fla. – The Town of Eatonville is looking for a new mayor and two new council members.
Early voting is now open for Eatonville’s town council elections and runs through Friday, with Election Day on Saturday, March 7. You can check your voting status and find your polling precinct through the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.
Eatonville has four council seats, and three are up for election. You can find all the candidates on the Eatonville town website.
Mayor Angie Gardner is stepping down after four years as mayor and has filed to run for the new District 7 seat on the Orange County Commission.
Voters in the oldest continuously incorporated town founded by African-Americans will decide on Gardner’s replacement.
News 6’s Christie Zizo spoke to each candidate about their top concerns for Eatonville, what they thought about the sale of the Hungerford property to Dr. Phillips and how the current mayor handled it, and what they think Eatonville needs to thrive in the future.
Below is our interview with candidate Council member Wanda Randolph.
You can find the full interviews for the other candidates by clicking on the names below.
Wanda Randolph
[WATCH: Full interview with Wanda Randolph]
NEWS 6: Tell us a bit about your background. How long have you lived in Eatonville? What do you do for a living? And tell us about your favorite places in Eatinville.
WANDA RANDOLPH: "I’ve been in Eatonville for about 43 years now, and I am on the town council. I have been on the town council since 2022 up to the present, as well as serving on the CRA board, the community redevelopment board. My favorite places right now in Eatonville for restaurant dining is Ms. Kim. Kook’n with Kim. She’s been here for several years in the town of Eatonville and really enjoy her foods and her menus and those things that she has to offer."
NEWS 6: And you are actually on “Somebody Feed Phil,” the Netflix show, and you took him to Kook’n with Kim, if I remember correctly, right?
RANDOLPH: “Absolutely, yes, and it was a very joyful experience to understand exactly what she does at the restaurant and the wonderful recipes and the meals and the very tasty food that brings so many people to Eatonville.”
NEWS 6: What is your experience working with the Eatonville government? I know you said you were with the CRA and obviously the town council, but what other experiences have you had with the government?
RANDOLPH: "Well, the experiences I’ve had with Eatonville government has been the need to take care of the things that has been more or less, I won’t say it wasn’t neglected, but things that just have not really caught up to where we should be. And some of those things is dealing with the water infrastructure, which we’re going through that process now, because we were awarded a $31.3 (or 0.4) million grant. So that is already in process. And some of the other experiences in Eatonville is just making sure that we are bringing our town and our government up to the proper codes that we need in order to run a town very efficiently. So we’ve done a lot of good things in the last couple of years as far as revitalizing our law enforcement department, making sure our departments are running very smoothly and efficiently."
NEWS 6: What makes you qualified to be mayor?
RANDOLPH: “Well, I can say my 40 years, I have spent at least, I have spend four years working for the state government for the State of Florida back in the late 70s, postal management for about 35 years in postal management, working for United States Postal Service, and my time in service here working for the Town of Eatonville as a legislative official. So it has given me a very good, broad experience and understanding about policies and how government works.”
NEWS 6: What are the biggest issues in Eatonville and what are your thoughts on how to solve them?
RANDOLPH: "Well for presently the biggest issue in Eatonville right now is dealing with the infrastructure of our roads, our sidewalks, addressing the needs to our other governments such as the county, the state, and the federal of the needs of things that we need to do in order to support the infrastructure in Eatonville to dealing with time that has gone in for so many years. With the Hungerford property has always been a topic of discussion that we feel is going to be very supportive of the needs of the town. Some of the other things that we have some issues that we’re dealing with, and that is to make sure that we maintain our historic preservation here in the Town of Eatonville and also to be more accountable to the residents and our local businesses here in the town."
NEWS 6: Regarding the roads, any particular roads that you think really are overdue for help, and how are you guys working on that?
RANDOLPH: "Oh, yeah, absolutely. Kennedy Boulevard, which is the main artery in the Town of Eatonville. That road has thousands of cars per day, and it’s a two-lane road. We’re going to be looking into that as one of the things that I would like to get with the staff about, if I become mayor, is to ensure that we have a relationship with the county, so that way, we can move the road along. It has been in the engineering process for almost 20 years, and it still remains to where it is now. So we wanna be able to make sure that we fulfill the plans of the potential for that road to be widened, so that way we can attract more people to Eatonville and also grow our town."
NEWS 6: You mentioned the Hungerford property. How did you feel about the recent sale and how did you about the way the mayor handled it?
RANDOLPH: “Well, to me, I don’t really think it was really a fair process because number one, is that we were not involved in the process, and I don’t really think that Orange County, the board of the school board, actually did a good job as far as listening to our concerns. I think they were more concerned of getting the property off of their books, more or less, I would say that, off of their table, and moving the project along. And I do understand that dealing with this project for as many years as they have been and probably haven’t really had this project to move along and wanting to get this off of their plate, I do I understand that.
“But it was just the way how it was handled. And it wasn’t really that involved as far as giving the council the adequate time that we needed for them to understand our feelings on the other side. I realized that Dr. Phillips, the process with Dr. Philips, to me, it wasn’t fair because it was not open to other developers that could have come forward to do the same or similar. And I don’t feel that — it was a good win for the county, for the county a school board, but it was not a good win for Eatonville. It is a good win for Eatonville in some ways but not all of the ways.
“First of all, as far as the mayor’s position in cooperating and participating in the process, was really was not discussed with the town council, and that was something that was not very favorable upon the town council because we all are a part of what happens in Eatonville is not just one person. So she did not have the authority to act on behalf of the town without discussing or bringing this before council in the manner that we should have been involved in giving the respect as leaders for us to decide exactly what we wanted. And I think this process could have been a lot much more easily handled. If it was done in the proper manner.”
NEWS 6: So you guys voted recently to kind of force the mayor in the future to talk to you, kind of rein in her powers. Will this make a difference for you if you are elected?
RANDOLPH: “Well, I was the town council member that actually initiated the censure, as far as the mayor’s rights, to refrain her from acting in this manner repeatedly. So I don’t really think it’s going to hurt me. If anything, it should help me because it’s gonna let the residents know, and that is, that this is something here that is gonna be, that shows my leadership that no nonsense.
“And I am in this race to make sure that we’re doing the right things and we’re doin’ things in the right manner. I project law and order in what I do on a daily basis and also I’m going to expect the same for everyone in the town of Eatonville, our residents, other officials, We are all going to be treated with dignity and respect, and we’re going to demand dignity and respect between each other as well as those who are not a part of Eatonville. I think going through this process has been a very good lesson to show others that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior ever again.
“Right now, we want to be transparent, we want to move on, we wanna work with Dr. Phillips. I don’t want them to think that we’re against them. We’re not, we’re just against the procedures that how things were handled. And we like to be a part of the process and, hopefully, we will. So I’m going to demand that as mayor of the Town of Eatonville.”
NEWS 6: What would you prefer to see happen with the property?
RANDOLPH: Well, for number one, what we need on the property is what we don’t need with the property. We don’t a lot of nonprofit structures that’s going to be non-taxable to our town. That’s one of the issues that’s going to hinder progress as far as us moving ahead in the future.
“A museum would be great for our town because it represents who we are. We are a historic town. So I think a museum would be great in our town. We also need commercial development in our town. There may be some other things. I like the idea of the park, the pavilion, and all of that too. But I think we have to be very, very careful about what we put on that property.
“And we’d like to also like to have housing because the housing is going to help Eatonville grow. It’s going to help our tax revenue base because we have the highest mills in Orange County and we want to be able to curtail that and also to reduce taxes among our residents’ properties. So we increase the value of the homes and real estate on that property, like housing, we do need some housing, maybe town homes or something a little bit more diverse that will attract individuals that want to come eat and be old. Because we do need retail and we do need commercial to help our town grow.”
NEWS 6: And that was actually going to be one of my questions, is what do you think is needed in Eatonville for it to thrive in the future?
RANDOLPH: “We do need a grocery store. We don’t really have an adequate grocery store here. We have to travel three to four miles and even further to get groceries, and we want Eatonville to be a one-stop shop here. Residents can go right here, down the street from their homes, and patronize these businesses that we have here and get the same services that they get elsewhere. So that’s gonna help our economy grow. It’s gonna bring jobs here and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
NEWS 6: As a mayor of Eatonville, you’re going to have to talk to state lawmakers, lobbyists, other politicians, business groups. How are you going to advocate for Eatonville to those people? How would you sell the town to them?
RANDOLPH: “Well, that’s probably one of the top priorities, and it is meeting with the higher officials outside of Eatonville to be able to give us the resources that we need for our town. And like I say, I don’t mind and I’m already having in my mind and my brain here that I would like to visit the governor and talk to the governor, the county mayor, those at the state level, at all levels, and let them know about the needs of our town. And also the things that we’re trying to do and we’ll be doing to improve our town and improve our government. So those resources are all around us and we’re gonna take advantage of everything that we possibly can to make sure that we have a better future for our residents in the Town of Eatonville.”
NEWS 6: Anything else you want people to know, any final thoughts?
RANDOLPH: “Well, I want everyone to know that we are a thriving town and we would like to see our town treated and thrive in the same manner as the other surrounding towns. We welcome everyone that would like to come and sit to the table and talk to us about some things, what they can do to help us to navigate to the next level, to improve our services. We wanna be able to establish very, very good partnerships that we can do a lot to help our seniors and our young people here in the Town of Eatonville for their future. So I’m looking forward to four years of challenges and improvements and moving forward in the Town of Eatonville and making this a great place to live and to be.”