18 - Adoption of Redistricting Plan

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AN ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS ESTABLISHING CRITERIA FOR REDISTRICTING OF POLITICAL BOUNDARIES The city council for the City of Paris, Texas, meeting in a duly scheduled and posted meeting, does hereby adopt the following criteria for use in the redistricting of all City political boundaries. Any plan for the redistricting of the single -member districts from which representative members of the executive body of the City of Paris are elected should, to the maximum extent possible, conform to the following criteria: 1. The plan should ensure that all applicable provisions of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, the voting Rights Act, and the Texas Election Code are honored. 2. The plan should be drawn in such a manner that the maximum deviation from an ideal size, as determined by dividing the total population of the city by the number of single member districts that compose the City Council of the City of Paris be not more than plus or minus five (S%) percent for any individual single member district, or a total top to bottom deviation (percentage of deviation below and above the ideal size) between the most populated district and the least populated district by not more than a maximum deviation of no more than ten (10%) percent. 3. The plan should address minority representation, and if at all possible, in conformity with constitutional standards, avoid retrogression in the percentage of population and voting age demographics consistent with existing minority representation. 4. The plan should avoid fragmentation and preserve minority communities of interest to the maximum extent possible. These communities of interest should be recognized and retained intact where possible. Only when the overall minority population of the city is sufficiently large to require more than one minority district should minority populations be divided, and only then to the least degree possible. S. The plan should not, however, attempt to unreasonably join geographically remote minority populations into a single precinct unless there are strong and genuine connections between these communities as reflected by common schools, churches, or cultural ties. For example, minority populations in two separate neighborhoods, located miles apart, may not have sufficient links or common political cohesion to justify joining these two minority population centers into a single electoral group. Particularly when dealing with distinct minority groups, such as Black and Hispanic populations, a general assumption that separate minority populations will vote in a "block" may be unsupportable in fact.