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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-20-2011 Minutes MINUTES OF THE CITY OF OCOEE DISTRICTING COMMISSION MEETING HELD JULY 20, 2011 CALL TO ORDER City Clerk Eikenberry called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m. in the Commission Chambers. The roll was called and a quorum declared present. PRESENT Chairman Dabbs, Vice -Chair Laney, Members Adams (arrived at 6:48 p.m.), Butler, and Chinelly. Also present were City Attorney Rosenthal, Staff GIS Analyst O'Halloran, City Clerk Eikenberry and Deputy City Clerk Sibbitt ABSENT None City Clerk Eikenberry stated the first order of business on the agenda is for the election of officers but she feels this should be held off until Members Adams arrival. DISCUSSION/DISTRIBUTION OF HANDOUTS AND MATERIALS GIS Analyst O'Halloran provided a PowerPoint presentation that briefly summarized some of the points he made at the last meeting such as the ideal population and deviations. He briefly explained that what they are ideally trying to achieve is one person one vote which is why they try to target equal population for each district. His PowerPoint presentation further summarized the direction that the board requested of staff in providing them with the district builder website, maps with census blocks and population, vacant/foreclosure homes, land use maps, population race data, and a list of the approved residential development projects. During the review of the residential development projects spreadsheet Member Dabbs inquired if there is legal ramifications if they consider population based on more than three years and if it remains skewed five years from now. City Attorney Rosenthal stated the answer would be "no" because that is a factor which they can take into account; however, the 5% deviation has to be based strictly on the 2010 census population. The information provided to them are factors that they can take into account to look at how those district might become balanced or unbalanced over the next five years. Our charter calls for an interim Districting Commission at the five year level. Member Chinelly clarified that if they are looking at an ideal population for this process then they cannot recommend something that skews the difference by more than 5 %. City Clerk Eikenberry stated that it is 10% total; they can have one district skewed 5% under ideal and other 5% over. City Attorney Rosenthal stated the ideal would not be a 10% spread between two districts but that would be legally sufficient. Member Chinelly stated that looking at the residential development project spreadsheet the numbers would presume everything is totally built and occupied. GIS Analyst O'Halloran stated that is correct. City Attorney Rosenthal City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting July 20, 2011 stated that all the under construction will not necessarily be completed within the five year period before there is a new Districting Commission; that is speculative. DISTRICT BUILDER SOFTWARE GIS Analyst O'Halloran briefly demonstrated and provided a step -by -step handout to the board members for the district builder software available on the Florida Senate website. He advised the board of several situations (such as moving around census blocks to reassign that population to different districts) that the State's software could not do. Member Butler clarified that they could still meet with GIS Analyst O'Halloran to use the software provided by the city. GIS Analyst O'Halloran demonstrated his software and the improvements he made based on the information they had requested (i.e. foreclosure info. and census race data). ELECTION OF OFFICERS Member Laney stated she would like to nominate Member Dabbs as Chairman. Member Dabbs accepted the nomination. Member Laney, seconded by Member Adams, moved to elect Member Dabbs as Chairman. Motion carried unanimously. Member Butler and Member Chinelly both nominated Member Laney as Vice Chair. Member Adams, seconded by Member Butler, moved to elect Member Laney as Vice -Chair by acclamation vote. Motion carried unanimously. REDISTRICTING STRATERGIES AND TIMELINES City Clerk Eikenberry briefly reminded the board that the City Commission formed this board early with the assumption that they wanted this board to come back with some better numbers for the 2012 election. This puts them on a very tight timeline and if they want to come up with numbers for the 2012 election than this will have to happen by the end of August or the first week of September. Chairman Dabbs stated this timeline works for him because he will be out of town the first week of September. GIS Analyst O'Halloran stated he also has vacation scheduled for the 1st of September. City Clerk Eikenberry stated the City Commission has voted on their budget dates so this board can now plan around those dates. Budget dates for August are on Monday the 8th and Wednesday the 17th. After much discussion on meeting dates the following timeline was created: July 27 - Board Meeting August 3rd — Board Meeting August 24 — Board Meeting; Finalize Boundaries August 30 - Final Meeting/Public Hearing (if needed) 2 City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting July 20, 2011 TRIALS OF VARIOUS DISTRICT BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS GIS Analyst 0' Halloran demonstrated some possible adjustments to the boundaries. City Attorney Rosenthal stated that in the past if individual committee members met with Mr. O'Halloran and they came up with a plan that they liked he would then save it and present it as an option at the following meeting for the whole committee to look at. City Clerk Eikenberry stated they had six board plans with various changes during the last Districting Commission and they narrowed it down to two to present to the Commission. Member Butler inquired if staff has come up with any potential plans. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran stated that staff has not come up with any plans but they have looked at potential areas that they could split. He further demonstrated the area that he and the City Clerk looked at which helped bring the deviation to almost 0 percent for each district except for District 3 which is still the highest deviation at 1.39. City Clerk Eikenberry explained that this was the closest deviation to 0 they could get in working with small populated areas. She further stated trying to take residents out of District 3 was very difficult because there were no small areas and they would have had to split a development. Member Butler stated she would like Mr. 0' Halloran to save the demonstration he just provided as Plan "A ". She felt this was a pretty good option. Chairman Dabbs also added that his first take on this option is that there is not much more work that they would have to do because it is already in compliance. Vice - Chair Laney inquired if they could get a hard copy of this option to look at or if it would be available on -line for them to view. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran stated he could forward them a pdf or link to where they can view the map. Member Adams clarified that the projections they are coming up with is for the 2012 election and beyond that they have projections going out three years; however, it is a five year window. He further inquired if it is there obligation to forecast or draw out the maps for the five years. City Attorney Rosenthal stated that while this is certainly ideal today from the census standpoint they may decide that they may want to be 3% lower or less ideal in a district because of what they think may happen growth wise over the next 5 -6 years. He further stated that is purely their decision as to whether or not they want to go in that direction. The plan they were just demonstrated is legally sufficient under the law and can be the plans for the 10 years no matter what happens in the population growth over the 10 years because it is based on the 2010 census. Under the charter there is an ability to take the look back at everything in five years based upon projections but that is not a constitutional requirement. Member Chinelly stated he feels this is a good time for them to discuss the process. He further explained what he understood the process to be and added that he had some other factors he would like the Board to consider because he does not feel this should be strictly a numbers exercise. One of the factors he raised was the effect on a neighborhood if it were split; could that interfere with a connection they may have to a particular district or commissioner. Chairman Dabbs stated is that he understands what he is saying and agrees with him to a point but the bottom line is that this is a numbers game. He further stated he is in favor of any compassion or human element they want to consider. Vice - Chair Laney inquired if this could split up any Homeowners Association. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran stated it can because the census block boundary lines do not always follow neighborhood boundary lines of subdivision boundary lines so one of the criteria is that they do not want to split up neighborhoods. City 3 City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting July 20, 2011 Attorney Rosenthal inquired if the current districts have any split subdivisions. City Clerk Eikenberry stated there are no split subdivisions. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran stated that can use the original re- districting criteria such as keeping the districts as compact and contiguous as possible. City Clerk Eikenberry stated they can also keep in mind that if they decide on a specific plan to present to the Commission they can target those residents that will be affected to make sure they come to the Public Hearing and have a voice. Further discussion ensued regarding criteria they could consider. City Clerk Eikenberry announced that there is a Public Hearing regarding the Congressional State Senate and State House districts. The meeting is in Orlando on July 27, 2011, at 2pm- 4pm and 6pm -8pm at the Bob Carr Performing Arts. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:59 p.m. • . Melanie Sibbitt, Deputy City Clerk r 1 abbs Chairman 4