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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-06-19-0630PM-PublicHearing• FILED tom jug 14 P C. 32 BRAZOS COUWARTNYCOUNTY. BRYpN.jEX R BRYAN. TEXAS NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT THE COMMISSIONERS COURT WILL CONDUCT A PUBLIC HEARING ON TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2001 AT 6:30 P.M. AT THE BRAZOS CENTER, 3232 BRIARCREST DRIVE, ASSEMBLY ROOM II, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order. 2. Presentation by the Bickerstaff Law Firm relative to Commissioner precinct redistricting. 3. Discussion regarding the alignment of Justice of the Peace/Constable precincts with Commissioner precincts. 4. Adjourn. • The Brazos Center is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangrements, call (979) 3614102. 41 • i i I COMMISSIONERS' COURT PUBLIC HEARING JUNE 19, 2001 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas conducted a public hearing on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 6:30 p.m in Assembly Room II of the Brazos Center, 3232 Briarcrest Drive, Bryan, Texas with the following members of the Court present: Alvin W. Jones, County Judge, Presiding Tony Jones, Commissioner of Precinct l; William S. Thornton, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Randy Sims, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Jr., Commissioner of Precinct 4; j Karen McQueen, County Clerk. The purpose of the public hearing was to receive comments for or against Illustrative Plan 1-A for N' y Commissioner precincts and demographics. Attached is a list of citizens and officials in attendance. The County Judge opened the public hearing and outlined the rules for speaking on this topic. He stated that the meeting was being officially recorded by a Court Reporter and asked that persons wishing to speak go to the microphone and limit their comments to three minutes; give their name, spell last name, and give their address. He presented an overview of the redistricting process and stated that the county had hired the Bickerstaff law firm of Austin to assist the county with this process. The second item on the agenda is a presentation by Syd Falk with the Bickerstaff law firm relative to the commissioner precinct redistricting. Agenda item number 3, after discussion of the realignment of the commissioner precinct lines the court will receive public comment regarding the alignment of Justice of the Peace and Constable precincts with the commissioner precincts. Judge Jones stated that if anyone wished to submit a redistricting plan for the Court's consideration it must be a plan of the entire county and m.ut comply with the criteria adopted by the Court at an earlier meeting. He went on to say that any plan that is approved by the Commissioners Court must be submitted to the Department of Justice for approval. The Departrnent of Justice has sixty days to respond, but they also have the prerogative to request additional information and start the clock running again. It is not uncommon for them to wait until the 58' day and start the clock again. He stated it was the Court's desire to have a plan approved by the Department of Justice and in place in time for filing of office in the Primary Election. Filing begins December 11 and ends January 21 or 31. At this time the meeting was turned over to Syd Falk representing the Bickerstaff law firm. 17 - 1 a t Mr Falk reviewed the firm's background and experience in redistricting. He went on to review why ~J counties are required to redistrict, that the United States Constitution has a requirement that has come to be known as "one person/on vote" requirement. Any elected position or body that acts in a legislative capacity, must have approximately equal population in each of the elective districts. After the decennial census the legislative body must determine if the districts have equal population, if not they must go through the process of redistricting to equal the population. Brazos County has experienced approximately twenty-five percent increase in population over the last decade. Commissioner Precinct I is approximately thirty percent overpopulated and Commissioner Precinct 2 is about sixteen percent underpopulated for a total of forty-seven percent. Commissioner Precinct 3 is about six percent underpopulated and Commissioner Precinct 4 is about eight percent underpopulated. The task at hand is to bring these districts back into balance. Precinct 1 must give up population to the other precincts to produce precincts approximately equal to the target population of 38,104. To arrive at these districts voting tabulation districts (units of population) are used to equalize the Precincts. There are three legal requirements when drawing the new Precincts, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, • • Section 5 and Section 2. Section 5 requires that any change in a voting practice or procedure requires preclearance of the Department of Justice. This section also requires the entity to avoid retrogression, a test of whether or not the new plan reduces the opportunity for minority groups to participate and elect a candidate of their choice. Section 2 imposes a nondiscrimination requirement, not to do packing or fracturing of minority groups. Packing is putting as many members of a minority group into one district in order to minimize their ability to influence votes in other districts. Fracturing is breaking up a minority group into several precincts to minimize its influence. Brazos County has been successful in avoiding either packing or fracturing in the plan being presented. The third legal requirement is Shaw v. Reno which disallows gerrymandering based on race: The plan presented achieves all four requirements of equal population, the non-retrogression requirement, the nondiscrimination requirement and satisfying the Shaw v. Reno requirement. At an earlier meeting the Commissioners Court adopted certain criteria for developing a plan for Brazos County. No. 1 - to balance the population; no. 2 - to use whole voter tabulation districts where possible and not split them; no. 3 - to preserve existing districts where possible (not wipe the map clean and start all over, but to use existing district boundary lines and make as few changes as possible); no: 4 avoid . splitting communities ofinterest such as neighborhoods or city limit lines; no. 5 - use identifiable boundaries, such as voting tabulating districts as building units; no. 6 - produce districts that am compact and contiguous; no 7 - to preserve incumbent constituent relationships; the last two are satisfying Section 5 and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. an J 9 e~ Y i I I 1 r t Two maps were then displayed. One showing the Commissioner Precinct boundary lines as they currently exist and one developed by the law firm after discussion with the commissioners. It is a plan the Court is fairly comfortable with and provides a starting point for public comment. Any comments received will be considered and depending on any difficulties in taking them into account the Court will make modifications to this plan and develop a plan to be adopted in the near future. Mr. Falk, using a pointer, showed how the precincts lines have moved to bring the precincts within ten percent population deviation. A chart showing the demographic breakdown by precinct was also displayed Mr. Falk closed his remarks by saying the Firm is comfortable in suggesting this plan to the Commissioner, that it would obtain preclearance and be an acceptable plan by the Department of Justice in satisfying Section S and 2 of the Voting Rights and Shaw v. Reno. Questions were then taken from citizens. Ann Hawn, 1309 Wilshire Court, College Station asked to have the boundary lines between Bryan and College Station indicated on the map. Mr. Falk displayed the boundary lines. Mrs. Hazen stated that was not what she wanted to hear. Demetrius Basdekas asked about the population distribution deviation of ten percent and that each precinct has a major population within the two cities which is the urban population. He asked what consideration was being given to the rural population in comparison to the urban population, particularly in Precinct 2 where it is jagged and goes through the urban area. What other criteria is to be used? Mr. Falk replied that the only criteria that could be used is the population and balancing the population between the precincts. Mr. Basdekas stated that the urban population will control all four precincts. He asked if the population distribution within each precinct for all four precinct for urban versus rural was available. The answer to that was "not at this time". Mr. Falk stated that one of the problems with counties that have central concentration of population in an urban area is that it is almost impossible to balance the four precincts without all four of them having roughly equal portions of urban population. Mr. Basdekas asked if there is no requirement to draw a rural precinct. Mr. Falk replied there was not. It would be very difficult in this county to draw one and certainly not two precincts that did not have substantial urban population. Mr. Basdekas stated it would be difficult but not impossible. Mr. Falk stated he bad not looked at it, and did not know at this time. Mr. Basdekas commented about a private citizen presenting an alternate plan without hiring a law firm to assist them. Mr. Falk replied that the local area Council of Governments generally have G.I.S programs and data that will allow a private citizen to accomplish this. These programs show the voter tabulation districts, total population, voting age population and demographic breakdowns. Mr. Basdekas i asked if there was nothing in the law that provides for anything in the redistricting other than ratios for drawing the precincts. There is noting in the law that addresses the residents is the rural areas getting the • 344 r i short shrift when they are controlled by the urban population. Mr. Falk replied that there is noting in the redistricting law to address the issue. It is a political science problem not a redistricting problem. The redistricting law addresses equal voice that is inherent to the "one person/one vote" requirement. Anthony Ramirez, 404 Willow Oaks Street, Bryan and President of the Hispanic Forum of Bryan- College Station stated that the Forum has been following the procedures of the Commissioner Court in the redistricting process and find that everything is open to the public. That the plan is following the Voting Rights Act relative to packing and fragmenting. That this group is interested in assisting the Commissioners and the City of Bryan in any way possible to complete this redistricting process. He stated he has seen nothing that causes this Forum any concerns at this time. Steve Gongora asked from the existing plan and the proposed population, what is the voting age • population of Hispanic population, Black population and Anglo-American population for precinct 4. Mr. Falk stated that the current plan has a Hispanic percentage of total population equal to 38.81 percent. Total African-American percent total population 28.78 percent. The voting age Hispanic percentage is 35.38 percent and the African-American percentage is 26.70. The proposed plan has a total population of 38.23 Hispanic, a drop of .6 percent and 28.13 percent, g drop of .65 percent. Total voting age population for Hispanic in the proposed plan is 34.83, African-American is 25.75. Mr. Gongora asked if registered voters were taking into consideration when drawing the plan. 'The answer was "no, redistricting is based on total population". There being no further comments on item 2, the redistricting of Commissioner Precincts, the County C Judge announced that item 3, realignment of the Justice of the Peace and Constable Precincts would be discussed at this time and asked for comments from the audience. Lambert Wiles, 9552 River Road, College Station asked who would be responsible for drawing the voting precinct lines. He was informed that the Commissioners Court has the responsibility for drawing the voting precinct lines. That it is the hope of the Court to reduce the number of precincts if possible and to divide those precincts that have a very large number of registered voters. It is also hoped that with the redistricting of the City of Bryan and the Bryan Independent School District that the precincts will be drawn to eliminate the necessity for voters to go to different locations each time they vote. No comments were received on the realignment of the Justice of the Peace and Constable Precincts with the Commissioner Precincts. There being no further comments on either issue the Public Hearing was closed and the meeting adjourned. J i 3 i f; i I~ f! i t t r i I Ij f. The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Public Hearing Workshop on Redistricting held on June 19, 2001 have been examined are approved this the Z? day of September 2001, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Alvin 'W. Jones, T ones County Judge Commissi ner, Preci t 4illiam S. Thornton Randy Sims Commissioner, Precinct I Commis s' ner, Precinct 3 st i~A G grey Caule , Jr. • Karen McQueen Commissio er, Precinct 4 County Clerk .1 i 0 "Z3~ fj.-,34(a BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT ' MEETING ON / q 200 L AT A~ E 0 1 I z ~ i. BRAZOS COUNTY CONIMISSIONERS COURT MEETING ON 19 200 % AT 6= 3o,Pf'y+ MAMP nR CTANT7.A TTC)N/1)FPA R TMFNT 46 a'R11gN QR~MF/E~D r,-f. DePT, ~oe i