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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 07.21.2011 CC-SThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Tommy Pat Berryman Gonzalez, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary Regular Session (Council may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene an Executive Session at the request of the Mayor, a Councilmember, or the City Manager for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551.) A Call to Order - SPECIAL SESSION TO BEGIN NO EARLIER THAN 6:00 PM B Public Hearing regarding proposed redistricting plans -- Mayor George Garver, Moderator; Cobby Caputo, Legal Counsel and Presenter Berryman absent. Mayor welcomed the audience and laid out the parameters for this public hearing. He said Council's role tonight is just to listen and he noted he will moderate the public speaking. He asked the attorney, Cobby Caputo. to review the plans being considered by City Council. He noted, at the next meeting on July 26, 2011, Council has this as an item for possible action. He turned the floor over to Cobby Caputo. Caputo said today we are conducting a public hearing for the redistricting process. He said the US Constitution requires that representative government be broken up into equal groups. He spoke about how there can not be more than a 10% deviation in population between the largest and smallest district He said the current deviations in the City are significantly higher than 10%. He spoke about how Texas is covered by the Voting Rights Act and anything that would change an election process must be approved by the Department of Justice. He said the Department of Justice wants to protect the minorities within a district. He spoke about how District 7 is a minority performing district. He noted another criteria that is used is to make sure and use easily identifiable geographic boundaries He said another criteria is to maintain communities of interest. He noted the City wants to have viable election precincts once redistricting has been completed as well. He spoke about how the City will be working with the County on this issue. He said the Council has also expressed a need that they do not necessarily want to protect incumbents and they want to try and keep geographic boundaries as intact as possible. He noted the Districts have to be compact and contiguous. He said the City should not try to pack all minorities into one district or split them into seven. He spoke about the minority numbers in the City. He said Council had asked them to bring back three initial plans to work with and discuss. He spoke about how they came up with each of the three plans. He said the Council chose Plans A and B to become Illustrative Plans 1 and 2. He spoke about how District 4 was split and the odd shape of the City limits. He spoke about the idea that Georgetown Village should be separated City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages from Sun City. He continued to describe Plan A for the audience. He said there was a question asked about dividing Sun City into north/south or east/west. He showed Council how that could be done and how this new division created the "revised" plans for A and B. He spoke about how an east/west dividing line in Sun City would please the County because of voting districts. He described Plan B and how it differs from Plan A. He said Plan B creates a completely different District 2. He said it creates a hard boundary at Williams Drive. He said this plan prioritizes compactness of District 3 over separating Georgetown Village from Sun City. He said the Council is scheduled to hear this again on July 26, 2011. Mayor thanked Caputo for this review. He said, if a person has questions for the attorney on the map, they can ask him. Speaker, Brian Dixon, thanked the Council. He said he lives in District 5 so, regardless of the four plans, they are unchanged. He said he is there as a voice of the citizens of Georgetown. He said, after watching the meetings and discussions, two questions stuck out to him. He noted they are what addresses the challenges Georgetown has today and what addresses the challenges of the future. He spoke of the concerns coming from the Georgetown Village. He spoke about the Williams Drive corridor and how, currently, it is split among several districts. He said having one voice for that corridor is important. Speaker, Barbara Hallmark, said she has been privileged to attend some of Bill Sattler's get togethers in Sun City. She noted, having attended those meetings, she came out with one impression. She said by far the majority of the people at those meetings supported one of the B plans. She said she has not talked to one person who wished to have Plan A or A Revised implemented. She said there were comments made that Plan B was the "democratic" plan and she thought that was strange and disappointing. Speaker, Don Landry, thanked the Council for putting together such strong criteria for the redistricting process. He said he went through and reviewed the videos and discussions. He noted both Plan A or Plan B, whether original or revised, meet most of the criteria. He went through each of the criteria and how the maps meet those criteria. He said, in all cases, Plan B original or revised meets criteria 2, 4 or 6. He described how that version of the map meets those criteria. He said he does not understand why Georgetown Village would not want to be associate with Sun City. Speaker, Keith Brainard, said proposed Plan A and Plan A revised violates the criteria set out by the City Council. He described how it violates the criteria. He said there is no question that the Georgetown Village shares more in common with Sun City than the current District 3. He noted this is because the Village and Sun City share a part of town, common shopping venues, and traffic and infrastructure. He said residents of Sun City would not know about or care about certain issues that District 3 residents are concerned about. He said Plan A and Plan A revised would join Thousand Oaks with Sun City. He said Thousand Oaks are made up of families that struggle to make their monthly payments and have younger families. He spoke about the distance between the southern part and the northern part of the proposed District 3 in Plan A and Plan A revised. He said District 3 in Plan A and Plan A revised does not meet the redistricting criteria. He said the overarching goal of redistricting ought to be to provide equal representation of all districts. He said Plan A and Plan A revised would prevent this. Speaker, Adrienne Padfield, said it has been an interesting phenomenon to watch this evolve. She said she used to be an attorney in other Texas counties and added we are forgetting that women are also considered minorities. She asked that Council remember that. She said she thinks it is almost important to look at this as it affect each of us. She said there is probably more building going on in Sun City than the rest of Georgetown put together. She noted she thinks it is important that Council considers Sun City and to string them out all the way down to the South of Georgetown is not the right now. She spoke about how Sun City still pays school taxes. She spoke about Sun City has many volunteers that work for the schools around town She thanked Council for their time. Speaker, Bill Schubert, said he is owner of Friendly Computers on Williams Drive. He said he does not own a home in Georgetown but, as a business owner, the representation for him and his business is critical. He said the big problem with this is that there is multiple representatives for the Williams Drive corridor. He noted he thinks there needs to be one representative for that entire corridor. Speaker, Josh Schroeder,said he is a supporter of Plan A but noted it is in no way against Sun City. He noted he believes strongly that the Village and the future growth that will occur near the Village will cause it to be even more out of whack than it is now. He said, when they came to town, they were told to get involved in the community and politics. He noted if the Council does not adopt Plan A, they will be disenfranchising an entire area. Speaker, David Elkins, said he has had ongoing email conversations with his Council representative and has been disappointed in her interest which seems to be the business corridor of Williams Drive. He spoke about how City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages he served on another City Council and how they were blessed to be elected at large He said the whole Council focused on what is best for that City and not one particular district He said he supports Plan B or Plan B revised. He said he does not see any way to take one District and then spread it from all the way south to all the way north. He encouraged Council to remember that they serve all citizens in the community. Speaker, Mark Breckinridge, said he has looked at the maps and added he thinks Plan B or B revised would support the City best. He said to connect District 3 with Sun City voters, it would over -represent them and under -represent the rest of District 3. Speaker, Kay Anderson, said she supports Plan B because it is more compact. Speaker, Roy Jones, said he and his wife moved to town 10 years ago. He noted he is going to support Plan A, which is in the best interest of our town economically. He said it gives those on Williams Drive one voice to express their concerns in town. He noted a good economic base will support the City's property tax. He spoke about how Williams Drive is a gateway corridor and the necessity for it to be as positively represented as possible. Speaker, Brian Ortego, said in the next 10 years it is important for the attorneys to challenge themselves along with districts 1 and 6 to do as much as they can not to avoid a bigger bite in 10 years. He described the reasons why someone would be in favor of both Plan A and Plan B. He asked the attorneys to see if this is the best the City can do for the next ten years. Speaker, Patti Pondrum, said she lives in River Ridge and agrees with Brainard in that Plan B revised is the most cohesive and organized plan for the entire City. She spoke about Plan A and a way that Sun City could possibility be manipulated so that all areas have their voices heard and counted. She spoke about how adding 3,000 people of voting age population to the rest of District 3 would disenfranchise those people down South. She said she thinks the best plan is Plan B revised. Mayor thanked everyone for coming and expressing their opinions and said this will be discussed again at the regular council meeting on July 26, 2011. C Adjourn Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 06:56 PM. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages