{"id":2180,"date":"2025-10-14T11:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2180\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T11:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:27:16","slug":"regina-hill-seeks-old-city-council-spot-in-orlando-district-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2180\/","title":{"rendered":"Regina Hill seeks old city council spot in Orlando District 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former commissioner Regina Hill, removed from her Orlando City Council seat after her indictment on felony charges<\/a>, is attempting a comeback against Shan Rose, the woman who won a special election to replace her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But looming over the race is whether Hill would just be suspended from office a second time if she wins \u2014 starting the whole election cycle over again.<\/p>\n

Long-time community activist Lawanna Gelzer rounds out the three-way contest for District 5, which includes downtown Orlando and neighborhoods such as Parramore and West Lakes west of I-4. All three candidates are familiar faces in the district.<\/p>\n

Hill had represented the district since being first elected in 2013, winning 73% of the vote in her most recent victory in 2021. But she was suspended from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April of last year after her arrest.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Hill exploited a 96-year-old woman by draining her savings of more than $100,000 after gaining control of her finances. Investigators said Hill then spent the money on personal expenses like rental cars, hotel rooms and vitamin injections, none of which benefited the woman.<\/p>\n

Hill maintains she is innocent.<\/p>\n

Rose, a former City of Orlando employee, had lost to Hill in the 2021 race, but was elected to replace the suspended commissioner in June 2024 after coming first in a seven-candidate special election. Gelzer came in fourth place.<\/p>\n

Rose then won a runoff against Hill\u2019s endorsed candidate, former state Rep. Travaris McCurdy.<\/p>\n

Hill is banking on her years of experience and her personal interactions with residents. She doesn\u2019t believe her pending criminal charges will damage her standing with voters, even if her opponents seek to use the charges against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community is more concerned about what affects them every day, and them and their lives. And they know I\u2019m a proven leader,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know that I have provided for them for the last 12 years, and that I provided for them as a nurse. I took care of many of their parents, their grandparents and them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill said her greatest achievements as a commissioner include supporting improvements to affordable housing, sheltering the homeless and expanding educational opportunities in the district.<\/p>\n

If reelected, her main priorities are to continue to create more opportunities for mixed-income, single-family and multifamily housing; support economic development opportunities for small businesses which benefit residents, not just developers; and\u00a0provide skilled training to the homeless and those who receive government assistance so they can attain high-paying jobs, have careers and become self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

Court records show Hill currently has no set trial date. If she is reelected and the charges against her are still pending, DeSantis can suspend Hill from office again. She said she doesn\u2019t know what DeSantis will do, but she said she respects DeSantis\u2019 opinion and will see what happens if the time comes.<\/p>\n

Rose said if Hill were to win, \u201cwe\u2019d be back in a special election, wasting taxpayer dollars like we had to do last year.\u201d She believes Hill\u2019s lengthier experience doesn\u2019t necessarily make her the best candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDistrict 5 has been chaotic and in drama for the last decade. There\u2019s a lot of forgotten communities and communities that have not been served,\u201d Rose said. \u201cAnd since I\u2019ve been elected, I\u2019ve served the entire district. District 5 includes Parramore, but there are other communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose said she\u2019s helped complete several projects that were pending when she took office, including securing funding for renovations to the Kia Center and Camping World Stadium, breaking ground on an affordable housing complex and improving road and sewage infrastructure in Parramore and Haralson Estates.<\/p>\n

Rose also said she initiated programs creating buses that serve as a mobile doctor\u2019s office for seniors and a dental office for kids, as well the 407 Connect program which provides buses to be used as overnight homeless shelters.<\/p>\n

Rose\u2019s priorities if reelected are keeping crime down, creating higher-wage jobs, turning the district into the city\u2019s technology hub and expanding access to affordable housing and home ownership.<\/p>\n

Gelzer is a frequent candidate for office in Orlando and Orange County, focused on causes related to racial and environmental justice. Although she said she\u2019s appalled by the allegations against Hill, she does not want to run a negative campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why I got in the race [was that] all I saw was bickering going back and forth,\u201d she said. \u201cWe needed to hear who was going to take District 5 to the next level and make it whole, not people saying all kinds of personal, negative things.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her major accomplishments from her time as an activist include involvement in statewide strategic planning for hurricane preparation and evacuation, as well as her partnering with federal organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic to secure over $2 million to provide access to vaccines.<\/p>\n

Gelzer said her main priorities if elected include improvements to the district\u2019s infrastructure, expanding access to transportation, building better relationships with businesses to address her concerns about mixed-use zoning, monitoring the district\u2019s air quality and educating residents about living with climate change.<\/p>\n

She said the latter two goals build off of about $750,000 in grants she has received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and philanthropic groups, as well as $2.5 million in funding allocated by the Florida Resilience Alliance she chairs.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, Hill had raised $3,980 while Rose had raised $22,732, according to their latest campaign filings. Gelzer said Tuesday she estimated she had raised over $5,000 and will file her campaign finance reports Friday.<\/p>\n

Early voting at the Orange County Elections Office begins Oct. 27, with Election day Nov. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former commissioner Regina Hill, removed from her Orlando City Council seat after her indictment on felony charges, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-2180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}