Districting Commission Meetings

MINUTES Districting Commission Meeting Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 5:30 PM Carnegie Town Hall, 235 West 10th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57104 1. Call To Order Commission Members Present: Tom Hurlbert, Barbara Johnson, Joseph Kippley, Mark Millage, Bob Thimjon Commission Members Absent: None Commission Chair Mark Millage called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Approval of Minutes A. Monday, June 14, 2021 Commissioner Barbara Johnson asked that "Brooks" be omitted from her name in the minutes. A motion was made by Commissioner Kippley and seconded by Commissioner Hurlbert to approve the minutes, as corrected.. Voice vote to approve. 5 Yes: Hurlbert, Johnson, Kippley, Millage, Thimjon; 0 No: (None). Motion Passed. 3. New Business A. Discussion of District Boundaries Agenda Items A and B were combined for discussion purposes. Jeff Schmitt, Planning Projects Coordinator, reviewed the options previously generated by the Commission. He noted that all options were based solely on housing population estimates because census figures are not yet available. Option A includes moving precinct 2-1 to the Central District; Option B includes moving Precinct 2-3 to the Northeast District; Options C1 through C3 include multiple precinct moves to various other districts; Option D includes moving Precinct 2-2 to the Central District and 5-6 to the Northeast District; lastly, Option F includes moving Precinct 2-7 to the Northeast District and 4-1 to the Central District. The members then began to discuss additional options that would provide for more- distinctive boundaries. The commission looked at natural boundaries, highways,  and major arterial streets as possible boundaries. One option presented included moving 3-6 into the Central and 5-11 and 5-13 out. It was generally agreed among members of the commission that steps be taken to provide for a more stable Central District, that is, to ensure core neighborhoods with like interests are kept contiguous even through future districting processes. To this end, it was proposed that the current 4-1, 4-14, 5-2, 5-4, 5-8, and 5-7 should serve as priority Central District precincts with 5-18, 3-6, 5-20, 5-21, 514, 5-1, 5-3, 4-2, 4-3, and 4-4 included to the extent possible. It was further discussed that any boundary changes should take future growth patterns into consideration in order to avoid significant future changes. The commission also discussed the desireability of seeing precinct boundaries change to make districting more efficient and managable.City ClerkTom Greco outlined the process for refining precinct boundaries and indicated that any changes are unlikely prior to the completion of the commission's work. This is a result of the need for legislative redistricting as well and the desire to maintain like precinct boundaries for City and State elections. Schmitt concluded by discussing the census data release timeline. Data will be released to the states by August 16th, at which point the City will analyze it to see if it can be used for our purposes. Otherwise, the detailed data release by September 30th would be used for redistricting at the City level. B. Review of Options Based on Population Estimates See above. 4. Next Meeting A. Thursday, August 26, 2021 (12 p.m.) It was agreeed that if census data is not available, then the meeting scheduled for August 26th will be canceled. 5. Public Comment There was none. 6. Adjournment A motion was made by Commissioner Thimjon and seconded by Commissioner Hurlbert to adjourn at 6:21 p.m. Voice vote to adjourn. 5 Yes: Hurlbert, Johnson, Kippley, Millage, Thimjon; 0 No: (None). Motion Passed. Thomas M. Greco, City Clerk