Wildwood commissioners may be stealing a page from Fruitland Park’s playbook as they anticipate a flood of Villagers into their city.
Political self-preservation will be the topic of a March 17 workshop in which Wildwood commissioners look at moving to district representation and away from at-large representation.
Fruitland Park has appointed a panel headed by Villages executive George “Mackie” McCabe, a Fruitland Park resident, which is exploring a revision of the city’s charter.
The theory is that as The Villages population swells in these two small cities, existing residents of both Fruitland Park and Wildwood could soon be outnumbered by Villagers.
That shift in population could shake up the existing political representation.
“They’re coming at us from all directions,” said Wildwood Mayor Ed Wolf about the city’s anticipated growth.
Wolf said a referendum to change the structure of the city’s representation could be on the ballot as early as this November.
The March 17 workshop will begin at 5 p.m. and will be held at the Wildwood City Commission chambers.
Sumter County had district representation until the 2006 One Sumter campaign. Now county commissioners are elected in at-large districts. The commission is dominated by Villagers.