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