ORLANDO, Fla. – For the first time in decades, thousands of people in the city of Orlando will have a new person representing them at City Hall.
Five people are running to replace District 3 Commissioner Robert Stuart, who is retiring after 20 years in office.
District 3 includes neighborhoods like Baldwin Park, Audubon Park, Rosemont and College Park.
News 6 anchor Lisa Bell sat down one-on-one with each of the candidates in the non-partisan race: Samuel Chambers, Roger Chapin, Chris Durant, Kimberly Kiss and Mira Tanna to ask each of them the same set of questions and dig deeper on certain topics as needed.
Election Day is Nov. 4, with early voting from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2.
To find your polling place, head to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.
Here’s the conversation with candidate Mira Tanna.
TANNA: I’m the daughter of immigrants from India and the Netherlands, and I grew up in Iowa. I went to Washington University in St. Louis and ended up staying in St. Louis for a good long while, and I worked in civil rights for over a decade. I came to Orlando in 2011 with my husband and my two kids. We’ve raised our two kids in the district. And since 2018, I’ve worked as the grants manager for the city of Orlando.
BELL: OK, you’re a Rosemont resident.
TANNA: I am. Yeah,
BELL: So why did you decide to run for District 3?
TANNA: You know, I really believe in responsive, trustworthy government, and when I heard that Commissioner Stuart was thinking of retiring, you know, I thought that there was a way for me to leverage my experience in City Hall and my lifelong advocacy for folks in my community and people that I’ve worked with to become that trustworthy, responsive commissioner.
BELL: What do you think is the biggest issue facing District 3 and the City of Orlando?
TANNA: Really, there are two issues: transportation and housing, and they’re both linked together. Whether you’re a commuter stuck in traffic for hours, or you’re trying to take the bus and you have to take three buses to get to work, or you’re worried about sending your kids to bike to school, everybody that I’ve been hearing from talks about the transportation challenges. And especially for young people who are getting their first job, it is really hard to find a place to live that’s affordable to them. We have an affordable housing crisis in Orlando.
BELL: What are some of your ideas to face those two challenges?
TANNA: So, I really want to see more transit-oriented development, so that not every adult has to own a car in order to be able to work and we can do that by expanding our investment in public transit. I would love to see Sun Rail expanded up the 441 corridor, and to have the LYNX buses go more frequently to have more routes so that we have more coverage and to increase the appeal of LYNX so that people will decide to use public transit. Then, we won’t need as much space for parking and we can use that space to build more affordable housing.
BELL: You’re a grants writer, where would that money come from?
TANNA: Well, there are a lot of sources of grant funding and city funding. So, in terms of investment in public transit, there’s no one elected position anywhere in Central Florida where you can wave a magic wand and make public transit happen, but working with our federal elected officials, so Rep. Maxwell Frost has just submitted a bill to increase investment in public transit, so we’re really excited about that. Our state legislature, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, sponsored a bill last session to be able to change where TDT funds can go. And obviously, tourists can rely on public transit. It’s something that if we had the infrastructure to get tourists easily from the airport to our attractions, that would benefit our tourist industry. So, I’d love to see TDT funds being used that way. We can also look on a local level within the city at the transportation impact fees and set aside a certain percentage of those impact fees just for public transit.
BELL: So if elected, what would you do on day one in office?
TANNA: Day one is about building relationships and building trust, and you know, I believe very strongly that our government should be responsive, that I should be an advocate for District 3 residents, that I should be someone who leads with absolute integrity and fiscal responsibility. So, setting that stage for being the most responsive commissioner is something that I would work on day one.
BELL: What is your vision for what the City of Orlando looks like in 15 years from now, the year 2040?
TANNA: I see a train up 441. I see people making choices to use public transit and to walk and bike more and that will create vibrant Main Streets where there will be more foot traffic. So, people will run into their neighbors at the corner store instead of driving to the big box behemoth. And one thing that I’ve realized as a LYNX rider, you know, I take the bus every day to City Hall, I’m one of the only people who does that, that it really starts to rebuild your social fabric. You run into all sorts of people that I wouldn’t otherwise run into or get to know. And when we start rebuilding that social fabric as a community, we’re stronger together, we’re more united, and we’re healthier, we breathe cleaner air, and so it really benefits our community in multiple ways.
BELL: Why do you ride the bus to work every day?
TANNA: I ride the bus, you know my car crashed in December of 2023 and luckily, we weren’t injured significantly, and I thought a lot about you know what car I wanted to replace it with. And I decided that I would trade in that couple thousand dollars worth of insurance money, which wasn’t really enough to buy a new car, for a $50 bus pass. So, I ride the LYNX because I care about climate change. And the more that I’ve been riding the LYNX, the more benefit I’ve seen. So, I walk over 10,000 steps every single day for the past year and a half. I’ve lost weight. I’m healthier. I feel better. You know, when I go into work, I’ve already had 15 positive interactions with my neighbors, with the bus driver, with the person who cleans the streets, with the person who cleans outside of the bank. These are people I look forward to seeing. We wave, we smile. We know a little bit about each other and it’s really just made my life better.
BELL: How’d you get here today?
TANNA: So, my son dropped me off. I was a little worried about my hair, but I’m gonna walk home.
BELL: Yeah, you know that is unusual and I think a lot of people, certainly people you work with, as you mentioned at City Hall, really have no idea what it’s like inside a LYNX bus on a daily basis.
TANNA: You know, if elected, I believe I’d be the only elected official in Central Florida who rides the bus. And transportation and public transit is a big conversation right now. And we need somebody who is in a decision-making position when it comes to these issues, who has real experience with our public transit system.
BELL: Gov. DeSantis has called for property tax reform. He’s not the only state official to call for that, saying that they should be cut, if not completely eliminated. What is your reaction and response to that?
TANNA: Well, my reaction is that it’s a way for the state government to keep control over local communities. And, you know, obviously, we need our local property taxes for government to function for our schools. And we know that there is wide support for the work that local government does and for our children to have an excellent education. So I think it’s both unpopular and short-sighted.
BELL: Is there anything else that you would like to share with us that I didn’t ask?
TANNA: I mean, maybe a word about being a Quaker.
BELL: OK, tell me.
TANNA: I’m the clerk of the Quakers of Orlando, a longtime Quaker here in Orlando and some of the things that Quakers value are community, integrity, peace, equality, and stewardship. And so, these are some of values on how I live my life, and that integrity piece is really central, both to how I live my life and how I want to lead.
BELL: Tell me more about that.
TANNA: The Religious Society of Friends was founded in the 1600s, and Quakers were persecuted in England. And many of them came to the United States to escape religious persecution, including William Penn, who founded the colony of Pennsylvania. And Quakers have been central in the abolition movement. They were stops on the Underground Railroad and had been involved in many major social justice and peace movements in our country. And so, we’re a very small group, but we’re mighty. We have always believed in walking the walk and in making the change that you want to see in the world.
For more on this race and full conversations with the other four candidates, head to clickorlando.com.