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Home My WebLink About01-23-1992 Minutes MINUTES OF THE CITY OF OCOEE DISTRICTING COMMISSION MEETING HELD JANUARY 23, 1992 Chairman Stebbins called the meeting to order in the training room at 7:05 p.m. and introduced City Manager Shapiro, who had asked for an opportunity to address this Commission. After Mr. Shapiro spoke, the roll was called and a quorum declared present. PRESENT: Chairman Stebbins, Vice-Chairman Breeze, Members Doss, Dunnaway, Pauline and City Clerk Grafton ABSENT: None City Manager Shapiro said that he had asked the Mayor and Board of City Commissioners if he should be here and had received the go-ahead from them. Mr. Shapiro gave the background of the political climate at the time the Charter Revision Committee met in 1988 and said also that, at that time, the City had a new attorney with no experience in charter revision. He said the theory of districting is good but that this came about in the wrong way for the City of Ocoee. The result was that the scheduling for districting was premature or ill- advised, as the anticipated growth has not yet materialized. Mr. Shapiro suggested that the Committee's recommendation should reflect: 1) the least obnoxious districting for right now and 2) consideration of looking at the Charter again as regards three year terms and districting. Mr. Breeze asked if it would be possible to undo what the Charter Revision Committee did and Mr. Shapiro said that it was not likely. Chairman Stebbins asked why someone did not have the foresight to review the needs before the money was spent on this project. Mr. Shapiro said it was more appropriate for this committee to examine the situation and make a recommendation than for the elected officials to do so. Chairman Stebbins said that this Committee has not yet reviewed the maps, but that the one which most nearly meets the Charter requirements would be the one recommended by this Committee. Mr. Shapiro pointed out that if none of the maps met the requirements, possibly a recommendation to go to referendum would be in order. Mr. Shapiro expressed appreciation for the opportunity to address this Commission and left the meeting. At this point in the meeting the roll was called. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 17, 1991 MEETING Mr. Breeze moved, and there was consensus, to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the December 17, 1991 meeting. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE DECISION ON INFORMATION PROVIDED BY DR. SEROW Chairman Stebbins read into the record the charge of the City Commission to this Commission to prepare a report to the City Commission with a recommendation of district boundaries as well as numbering the districts by February 26, 1992, which duties include holding a public hearing. For the benefit of the members certain facts were clarified regarding the assignment of commission seat numbers as district numbers. Dr. Serow introduced Dr. Terry who is the expert on redistricting from their office. Beverly Minor-Willis, Orange County elections office districting expert, was present also and was invited to join in the discussion. Dr. Serow explained that they had used the census blocks to create the maps and he had provided three coe 2 Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting January 23, 1992 plans rather than just the one he had promised. He displayed the maps, explaining that all the maps do a good job of equalizing population size. Given the size of the city, each district should contain 3,194 1/2 people, and only one plan has a deviation of distribution greater than 1% and that one has 1.35% deviation. Dr. Serow said that the plans differ in most other respects: Plan #1 does the best in terms of keeping the voting precincts as intact as possible, and, in his opinion has the most compact and contiguous boundaries. The disadvantage of this one is -.:at two of the existing districts have two Commissioners living in them. Plan #2 has a largely north/south orientation, is relatively compact, and also has two districts with two Commissioners living in them. Plan #3 is least compact of the three, however, the districts are contiguous and do follow major streets or lakefront. The one feature that could be construed as a weakness is that the resident Commissioner lives in the corner of the district rather than being centrally located. Ms. Doss said the determination will be 1) whether to do something that is politically popular, 2) to draw the lines so that it looks like everybody in your precinct is going to vote in your precinct, or 3) so that there are four precincts in one section. Ms. Willis said that the issue of conforming to precinct boundaries is not a critical issue, as the precinct lines will be redrawn based on the work of this Commission. As long as a physical feature (a recognized block boundary) is followed they will be satisfied and able to do their job. Chairman Stebbins raised a question about crossing over County Commissioner/district lines and Ms. Willis advised that there is no way for us to avoid it. Chairman Stebbins read from Attorney Rosenthal's letter of direction to this Commission regarding the requirements: . . .Each district shall be formed of compact contiguous territory and shall be as retangular as possible, and to the extent possible the boundary line shall follow the center line of streets; shall be based upon the principle of equal and effective representation as required by the United States Constitution, and the boundaries of each district shall, to the extent possible, align to the boundaries of the County precincts within the City and with the boundaries of the City. Mr. Stebbins said further that the members of this Commission had agreed at the last meeting that they do not have anyone that they specifically represent other than the citizens of Ocoee. Mr. Breeze said that even if the simplest map is chosen, there is distinct inequity, as one of the districts is in a potentially high growth area while several districts are built out. Dr. Terry said that it is not possible to leave a district short simply because we know it is going to grow. The requirement is to use the figures provided by the 1990 census. Mr. Breeze asked Dr. Serow if any other cities our size have voluntarily gone to districts and Dr. Serow said he felt it was rare. After lengthy discussion regarding the merits of each map, the following chart was prepared by Chairman Stebbins showing the consensus of the Commission: Page 3 Ocoee City Districting Commission Meeting January 23, 1992 PLAN #1: 1) Most compact 2) Uses major road for boundaries 3) Meets voter precincts for County PLAN #2: 1) Not feasible PLAN #3: 1) Potential growth for all districts 2) Equal population in all districts 3) No interruption in City Commissioners 4) More rectangular 5) Not breaking up homeowner associations 6) Divides commercial concentration As the maps provided by Dr. Serow were colored green, orange, blue and yellow the Commission identified districts 1 through 4 by color on each plan. The maps attached to these minutes to be distributed to City Commission members and Districting Commission members were reproduced by our engineering department and the technician used A, B, C, and D to designate the districts. All of this information is combined in the following list: PLAN #1: District #1 - Green - C District #2 - Orange - B District #3 - Blue - D District #4 - Yellow - A PLAN #2: District #1 - Yellow - D District #2 - Blue - C District #3 - Green - A District #4 - Orange - B PLAN #3: District #1 - Orange - B District #2 - Yellow - D District #3 - Blue - C District #4 - Green - A PUBLIC HEARING SET The public hearing was scheduled for February 18, 1992 at 6:30 p.m. immediately prior to the regular City Commission meeting and directions were given to City Clerk Grafton to place the appropriate advertising. REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COMMISSION SCHEDULED As it was felt that the report to City Commission should include the feelings expressed at the public hearing, this Commission will present its recommendation to City Commission on March 3, 1992. Page 4 Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting January 23, 1992 ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted , 11110 /aid Je; Grafton, City j Jerk L L