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02 Council Minutes (07/30/01)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JULY 30, 2001 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session Monday, July 30, 2001, 6:00 P. M., Paris Junior College, Applied Technology Building, Room 1016, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Michael J. Pfiester called the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: John F. Bell, Joe E. McCarthy, Richard Manning, Kevin Gray, John A. Carter, Jr. and Benny Plata. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilman McCarthy, to bring Agenda Item No. 3, consideration of and action on a resolution approving and authorizing the execution of a Grantee Acceptance Notice for an Automobile Theft Prevention Grant in the amount of $102,826.00. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Resolution No. 2001-118, accepting the Automobile Theft Prevention Program Grant entitled ~'Northeast Texas Automobile Theft Task Force," No. SA-TO 1- 10062-02, for the year beginning September 1,2001, and ending August 31, 2002, in the total amount orS 102,826.00, requiring the City of Paris to provide $47,276.00 in the form of cash and $12,550.00 in the form of in-kind services, was presented. A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Manning, seconded by Councilman Bell, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Mayor Pfiester called for consideration of and action on a resolution appointing citizens to the Council/Citizens Redistricting Advisory Committee. City Attorney Schenk suggested that the City Council confirm the citizens from the districts that were known and bring back a resolution at the next meeting appointing all the members at one time. A motion was made by Councilman Carter, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Manning, to confirm the appointment ofPhillip Nance from District No. Three, Doloris Stowe from District No. Four, Judy Stamper from District No. Six, Sue Special City Council Meeting July 30, 2001 Page 2 Fancher from District No. 7, and Brady Fisher at large. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. A motion was made by Councilman McCarthy, seconded by Councilman Plata to table action on the resolution appointing citizens to the Council/Citizens Redistricting Advisory Committee. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays, and Judy Stamper, Doloris Stowe, and Brady Fisher joined the City Council meeting. Bob Bass with Allison, Bass & Associates, LLP, was present telling the City Council that what they needed to do tonight was to look at the existing districts and their boundaries, taking the total population of the City of Paris and dividing it by seven to come up with an ideal district population, which is 3,700. At this time, District No. One is under populated by 855, District No. Two is under populated by 643, District No. Three is under populated by 89, District No. Four is over populated by 226, District No. Five is over populated by 54, District No. Six is over populated by 190, and District No. Seven is over populated by 1,115. Mr. Bass said that a total maximum deviation in excess of 10% will trigger a duty to reapportion under applicable law, and the City of Paris has a total maximum deviation of 53.25%. He advised that the City has a legal obligation to reapportion its political boundaries and this should be the goal of the Council/Citizens Redistricting Advisory Committee. Mr. Bass presented a visual of the current boundaries of the city districts based on the 2000 census. Beginning with District One, he explained that population would have to be added to this district. This district's population is made up of 58.1% Black, 4.04% Hispanic, 38.82% Anglo, 0.74% American Indian, 0.32% Asian, 0.04 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 0.07% other, and 0.88% Multi- Racial. Mr. Bass explained that it would be difficult without taking population from District Two to add to the population of District One in order to bring the numbers up while maintaining a similar minority composition. He said when you remove population from District Two, which is the more marginal district of the two that are presently minority districts, then District Two is even less Special City Council Meeting July 30, 2001 Page 3 viable than is District One. He illustrated this fact by using the computer database and district mapping capabilities to take population from District Two and add it to District One, showing a spreadsheet of the effect to the Council and Committee members present. Mr. Bass explained that he would like to obtain feedback from the Council/Citizens Redistricting Advisory Committee to tell him generally where they think the community of interests are so that he can work up various alternates to send back to them to look at for their next meeting. Mr. Bass explained how he would maneuver the district lines, adding and moving the census blocks to try and create balanced population within the districts. Mr. Bass started with a county map showing their proposed boundary lines and advised that the county has to honor the city's districts, so both the county and city would benefit by having boundary lines similar. Mr. Bass said the county is dividing the whole county population by four where the city is dividing only the City of Paris by seven, so this is not going to make the lines match up exactly, but that is the county's problem. They will have to create small voting boxes to handle the overlap of the city districts. Brady Fisher pointed out that while that may be true, County precinct four is far more heavily populated than the rural area of the other three, and it may be possible to get one city district in precinct four and two in each of the other. Mr. Bass said that one of the places that he started looking was what the city's districts might look like using the county's precincts as a starting point. Mr. Bass responded to a question by Councilman McCarthy regarding the voting age. Mr. Bass advised that work is initially done by total population and includes men, women and children. Once a district is created, particularly where it is a marginal district, the voting age of the population is looked at to determine if it is a viable district, that is does it retain its retrogression in the numbers it magnifies by a lower registration rate and a lower turnout rate. Mr. Bass said that the legal standards are initially total population. Special City Council Meeting July 30, 2001 Page 4 Mr. Bass worked with the Committee in moving boundary lines and adjusting each district to make them more balanced along with trying to retain the two minority districts. Councilman Gray departed the meeting at 7:46 p.m. After a considerable amount of adjustment of the population and boundary lines by Mr. Bass using his computer, he printed out a copy of the map along with the a summary page showing the population deviation in each district from the ideal population of 3,700, and showing the number of Anglo, Hispanic, Black and others in each district. Mr. Bass advised that with the current boundaries the total deviation was 6.84% and anything under. 10% is within the law. Mr. Bass said he tries to bring the percentage down within closer margins than this deviation. Mr. Bass said the impact statement is 4.4 stronger Anglo in District One, and it is 2.5 percentage points stronger in District Two with Anglos. Mr. Bass said that it is slightly stronger with Hispanic in District One and slightly less in District Two and six points less in Black in District One, and 2.5% less in Blacks. Mr. Bass recommended to the Committee that he take this plan back with him and continue to work with it to come up with a couple of different proposals, trying to keep each Council Member in their districts. After he did additional work on the map, he offered to send it back to the Committee for their study. Mr. Bass said he would come back in a few weeks with two plans, one framed loosely on this plan created tonight, and another one with a large minority district. After further discussion, a motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilman Plata, to allow Mr. Bass to take this plan back with him and to continue to work with it in order to come up with a couple of different proposals, and return in a few weeks with those plans for the Committee's consideration. The motion carried 6 ayes, 0 nays. Special City Council Meeting July 30, 2001 Page 5 The Committee established August 14, 2001, at 6:00 p.m. as the next meeting date. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. MICHAEL J. PFIESTER, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM City Clerk