Council Hears Redistricting Presentation
Posted/updated on: April 7, 2011 at 2:55 pm
TYLER The Tyler City Council received a presentation Wednesday from the consulting law firm of Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP on its initial assessment of the required redistricting of single member Council districts. The American system of representative government is based on the theory of one person one vote, where each persons vote in a district counts the same as another persons vote in a similar district, explained City Attorney Gary Landers. The City of Tyler last redistricted in 2000; since that time, there has been a sizable increase in the total population of the city, requiring the City to again redistrict.
The United States Constitution requires that each district within a city must have approximately equal population. Preliminary results from the 2010 Census indicate that the population of Tyler is 96,900, an increase of 15.84 percent from the 2000 Census. The distribution of that growth has not been evenly dispersed resulting in an uneven number of residents in some of the Citys single member districts. Given Tylers current population, each district should have 16,150 residents or be within 10 percent of that figure. To achieve this equity, district boundary lines must be adjusted to rebalance the populations in the districts.
In addition to the one voter one vote rule, cities in Texas must be aware of the federal Voting Rights Act requirements that govern the redistricting process. To ensure redistricting obligations are met, the City of Tyler, along with Smith County and Tyler Independent School District, has contracted with the law firm of Bickerstaff and Heath to assist with the redistricting process.
Redistricting is a complex process and there are several issues that must be kept in mind, said Landers. The consultants have decades of experience in this area and will guide the City through the process to ensure we meet all of our obligations. For example, we must gain approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for the new district boundaries before they are implemented in an election. Also, we have to ensure that the districting changes do not have a retrogressive effect on protected minority voters in specific districts; we have to ensure that these segments of the population are not worse off under the new system.
Officials say the City, County, and school district have all contracted with Bickerstaff and Heath Law Firm for the redistricting process to increase coordination and cooperation. According to city officials, it is anticipated that this coordination will assist voters in the future.
In their first presentation to the Tyler City Council, the consultants presented recommendations that outline a set of redistricting criteria and guidelines that will serve as the framework to guide the City in the consideration of districting plans, assist the City in its efforts to comply with federal and state laws that apply in the process, and provide the City a means to evaluate and measure the proposed plans.
Redistricting criteria include:
* Adopting districts of relatively equal size;
* Ensuring the districts have identifiable boundaries;
* Maintaining communities of interest and neighborhoods;
* Using whole voting precincts;
* Basing the plan on existing districts;
* Drawing districts that are compact and contiguous;
* Keeping incumbents in their districts; and,
* Tailoring the plan to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
The redistricting process is expected to be implemented by the end of November 2011. Public hearings will likely be held in May or June, assessment will be completed in July and adoption of the final plan will occur in August. The plan will then be submitted to the Department of Justice in September.
