Districting Commission Meetings

These minutes are considered ‘draft’ minutes until approved or amended at the next scheduled meeting. MINUTES Friday, August 5, 2011 9:00 AM at Carnegie Town Hall Districting Commission Meeting 235 West Tenth Street  Note: There will be no audio or video recording of this meeting. Members Present: Lynne Keller Forbes, Mary Glenski, Rick Knobe, Ann Randall, and Andy Traub Members Absent: None Staff Present: Debra A. Owen, City Clerk/Chief of Council Operations; Tamara Jorgensen, CMC, Assistant City Clerk; and Jeff Schmitt, Chief Planning and Zoning Official Guests: Sue Roust 1. Call To Order Forbes called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. Approve Minutes Dated August 3, 2011 A motion was made by Mary Glenski and seconded by Rick Knobe to approve the minutes. A motion was made by Mary Glenski and seconded by Ann Randall to amend the minutes with the following changes:  Change any references to Lynne Forbes to Lynn Keller Forbes;  Change any spellings of Lynn to Lynne;  Modify the minutes on the last page to read Saturday, April 4, 2009. Forbes asked for a voice vote on the amendment and all members voted yes. Motion Passed. Forbes asked for a voice vote on the main motion, as amended, and all members voted yes. Motion Passed. 3. Analyze Information and Maps Schmitt distributed two maps: Options B and C. The deviations have been added to these maps. Forbes asked the commission members if they have had a chance to review information distributed from previous meetings and if any feedback had been received from constituents. Glenski stated that, because of districting changes, some of her  constituents were unhappy that they had been moved and were not able to vote for their district representatives. Traub asked why the Central District boundaries were changed each time. Population increases in the outside districts will always impact the Central District during redistricting changes. Discussion followed. The differences between Maps B and C were reviewed and discussed. Map B leaves 1-2 in the Southwest District and Map C moves it to the Central District. Discussion was held regarding whether or not to move precincts 1-2 from the Southwest District to the Central District or leave it where it is. It was determined that leaving precincts 1-2 in the Southwest District will not impact the final numbers as much but moving it will impact more people. A motion was made by Rick Knobe and seconded by Ann Randall to choose Map Option B as the selected map. Forbes called for a voice vote and all members voted yes. Motion Passed. Map Option C will be retained as a secondary map. 4. Open Discussion Owen distributed a revised calendar. The following information was reviewed.  Publishing the selected Districting Commission Map on Wednesday, August 10. 2011.  In compliance with the timeline dictated by the Charter, the week of September 12th should be the week of the public hearings. Discussion was held regarding the past public hearings. One was held during the week in the evening and one was held on a Saturday.  The following two dates were selected for the 2011 Public Hearings: Thursday, September 15, 2011 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Saturday, September 17, 2011, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.  After the public hearings, Owen and Schmitt will draft the report to the City Council and distribute it to the Commission for review and comments. The report will be presented to the City Council at the City Council Meeting on Monday, October 17, 2011. An additional Districting Commission meeting will need to occur prior to the presentation to the City Council to review or update any information in the report. The Council has 21 days to reject the map. If this occurs, the Commission will reconvene to continue the process. If the report is accepted, an ordinance is drafted reflecting the changes and is presented to the City Council: 1st Reading: Monday, November 14, 2011 2nd Reading: Monday, November 21, 2011 Published: Friday, December 2, 2011 Effective Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011  Between the publication date on August 10th and the public hearing dates, postcards will be mailed to the precincts impacted by the districting changes to let them know about the Public Hearings (precincts: 1-1, 4-13, 5-5 and 5-16). The cards are mailed to registered voters in the precincts that are impacted in the selected map only. The cards will contain the following information: Date/Time and Location for the Public Hearings; references to the city’s website (which will contain illustrations of the maps); and possibly adding the precinct or district change: example: moving from the Central District to the Northeast District, etc. Comment cards will be available at the public hearings. Citizen input recorded on the cards will be distributed to the Commission members and also retained in the permanent records. 5. Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 24, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. This meeting has been cancelled. 6. Public Input Sue Roust asked for clarification on the commission accepting Map Option B vs. Map Option C. Discussion was held regarding how population movement in the city appears to be moving to the south. Roust stated “this really shows the people what a good job the last districting commission did because there aren’t many changes needed and that’s impressive.” Discussion was held regarding the possibility of splitting precincts. Roust stated that so many changes were made in 2010 that those changes should last for a couple of years. Forbes asked for clarification on what numbers are needed to split a precinct. Roust stated that when a precinct has more than 1,600 voters show up for a general election, then the County Auditors should look at splitting the precincts. It is not based on population, it is based on voter turnout at a general election. Knobe asked about future local elections. If they are handled like the recent school board election (using voter centers), will it be necessary to look at precincts in the future? Roust stated that it will not matter regarding the precincts, but it will matter regarding districts. Roust stated that if you are going to have more than a 25% turnout for an election, the voting centers may not work as well. Owen stated that she spoke with County Auditors Bob Litz (Minnehaha County) and Paula Feucht (Lincoln County) and both auditors stated that they will not be splitting any precincts prior to December, 2011. Adjournment Forbes adjourned the meeting at 9:30 a.m. Tamara Jorgensen, CMC Assistant City Clerk