Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Miguel DeGrandy-Talking Points for PresentationSubmitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk Presentation of preliminary redistricting plan February 7, 2022 • First cover slide • Commissioners, the purpose of today's meeting is to present a preliminary plan for your consideration. • We will be making a brief 15 minute PowerPoint presentation, to present the preliminary plan and the rationale behind the movements we made. • During the presentation we will display both data and maps on screen. • It may move a little fast, but after I conclude we can take as much time as you like to go back to the different slides. • Now certainly, this is your Commission and you can proceed as you see fit. • But I would respectfully suggest that you allow me to go through my entire presentation first, in order to provide an overall explanation of the plan, • After my presentation, we can take as much time as you want for questions or reviewing slides. • Ultimately, I assume the commission will discuss the plan and provide us with additional direction as to what additional changes, if any, you would like to see. • Now , as I said in our previous discussions, there are literally thousands of ways to craft a constitutionally compliant plan. • And that's why we asked you for guidance as to the traditional redistricting principles you wanted us to utilize and their order of importance, so that this commission's directives could guide how we approached the project. • So, let's go over those traditional redistricting principles again. • Slide number two with fade in • The prime directive will always be compliance with the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. 11436 Submittal -Miguel DeGrandy-Talking Points for Presentation Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • Additionally, this commission by consensus directed that the following principles be employed in the following order of importance. • First, maintain the core of existing districts to avoid voter confusion. • Second, factor in voter cohesion, • Next achieve substantial equality as opposed to mathematical equality of population, and: • Maintain traditional neighborhoods when feasible • So let's talk first about population numbers and compliance with legal principles. • Your current plan has an over 40% overall deviation, which means that it is malapportioned and could not be used in future elections. • The preliminary plan we will present today has an overall deviation of 3.81 % and meets all constitutional and voting rights act parameters. • As we discussed previously, the courts do allow for up to 10% deviation, but the case law informs that such deviations must have a rational basis. • Now, the deviations we did can easily be explained from a legal perspective, but there are also political and other considerations that can provide a rational basis for a larger deviation. • But those decisions are the providence of elected officials to make. • So, one the reasons our preliminary plan has a small deviation, is to provide sufficient latitude for you as the city's elected representatives to make any additional changes based on your knowledge of the communities you represent. • My role in that regard is to let you know whether any additional changes you want to make comply with the law. • So now let's look as some numbers so I can better explain how we arrived at our deviations, and then we can look at the plans. • Slide of population and VAP report 0) Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • District 1 is at .35 deviation, which is 311 residents above the ideal. It has an 87.38% Hispanic population with 88.75% Hispanic voting age population. • It clearly complies with the voting rights act. • District 2 has a negative .02 deviation, which is just 21 people short of the ideal population. As you know, we had to remove roughly 28 thousand people from the district to comply with legal requirements. • District 2 remains a swing district with 37.2% white non -Hispanic population, 8% black population, and roughly 48% Hispanic population. • Voting age percentages are almost the same as total population percentages. • We purposely tried to get the population of D2 at near zero deviation, because this is where much of the new development activity is occurring, and as in the last decade, it will probably grow faster than the other districts. • District 3 is slightly underpopulated at .98 percent, or 864 people under the ideal population. • District 3 has 87.4% Hispanic population and 88.4% Hispanic voting age population. Consistent with the Voting Rights Act, the Hispanic community has the opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice. • District 4 has the highest deviation at 2.23% or 1,973 residents above the ideal. 86.7% of the population is Hispanic, with 88% Hispanic voting age population. • This district also complies with the requirements of the voting rights act. • Finally, we underpopulated District 5 by roughly 1.7% under the ideal, basically because bringing in additional population from any side of the district would reduce the African American population percentage. • Additionally, we also felt it was appropriate to under -populate this district because it may experience significant development activity and growth in the next decade. • Normally we would have liked to have a slightly higher percentage of minority population, but there is simply no way to accomplish that with the 9 Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk current contours of the district and the geographic population concentrations of the black community in the City. • The proposed D5 is 51.75% black with 49.8% black voting age population. Our analysis of voting patterns indicates that the black community does have an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice. • So now let me show you the maps to further illustrate what we just discussed. • The first slide shows the entire configuration of proposed District 1 • As you can see, it maintains the vast majority of the core of the existing district. • The next slide shows the area we moved from D1 to D3 • With this change, we moved the area west of NW 22 ave and north of NW 7 Street • We felt this was a logical move where we could utilize major man made boundaries such as the Dolphin expressway to the North and 27th Ave to the west, in order to bring up DYs population • This next slide shows the area we moved from D4 into D1. • It spans from 27th to 37th avenue, and south from NW 7 street to Nw 4th street. • We did this to re -balance the population in D1. • Finally, the last slide shows the area we moved from D5 into D1 • This next slide showing the entire district provides a better view of that change. • We felt this movement was needed because this area had a high percentage of Hispanics and greater voter cohesion with D1 residents. • Also important was the fact that the existing D1 already had the most area of the Miami river abutting or within it, than any other district. 11 Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • Thus it was logical to extend D 1 further down the river, as many business constituents in this area may have like concerns and issues as other business interests up -river. • The next slide shows the proposed District 2 • As you can see, it remains a coastal district spanning almost the entire north/south corridor of the City by the bay • The next slide shows part the area we moved from D2 to D5 at the northern end • We moved that boundary east from North Miami avenue to NW 2nd avenue and from the 195 expressway down to 22 street • The next slide continues that eastward movement to NE 2nd avenue and south from 22 street ending at the 395 expressway. • The next slide shows the movement from D2 to D5 at the southern end moving slightly east to North Miami avenue from the 395 south to SE 2nd street. • As we said before, we could not move further east without affecting the black population of D5's ability to elect candidates of its choice, so we had to look south to further de -populate D2. • The next slide shows the movement from D2 to D 3 • This moves the boundary over from US 1 to South Miami avenue and from Simpson park to the north to 17 Ave to the south • Finally, the next slide shows the movement from D2 to D4 • It takes into D4 all the area from SW 25 street on the north to Day avenue to the south spanning from 27th avenue from the east to 37th avenue and the city limits to the west. • The next slide shows the proposed district 3. • It also maintains the core of the existing district. 5 Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • The next slide shows the area we moved from D1 to D3 which we already discussed. • This next slide shows the area we moved from D 4 to D3 • It spans from 17 Ave going west to 27th avenue and from southwest 9th street to SW 12 street • Again, this was done to balance population. • In that regard, we tried to find adjacent areas with similar demographics in order to maintain voter cohesion while re -balancing population. • Finally, this next slide shows a closer look at the area we brought into D3 from D2 which is south of US 1. • It goes from 17th Ave north to the end of Simpson park, moving the boundary down slightly from US 1 to South Miami avenue. • This was also done to balance population. We knew we had to take population from D2 to equalize it, but we took as little as was needed on the other side of US 1 to reach a low deviation. • Certainly, whether we cross US 1 into D2 and how much of the Grove, if any, should go into other districts is a policy decision for you to make. • Nevertheless, D3 is still 1% underpopulated, so it can expand to gain more population. • The next slide is of the proposed District 4 • It remains a highly Hispanic area • The next slide which we've already seen shows what we added to the bottom end of the district. • We overpopulated this district at 2.23% over the ideal because it's likely to have the least growth over the next decade. • In the event you want to decrease the deviation you can chose to move some of the excess population into D 3 or back into D 2. on Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • The next slide shows the movement we previously discussed from D4 to D1 • And the next slide shows the area we previously addressed from D4 to D3 • Finally, the next slide shows the proposed District 5 • the proposed district five also maintains the vast majority of the core of the existing district. • It was the most challenging district to develop. • As you can see there is no way to move north or to most of the north west, because the city boundaries end with D 5. • Our only options were to move south, and across the river into D 3, west into D 1 or east into D 2. • It was not feasible to take any population from D 1, because most all of the D 1 area west of D 5 is highly Hispanic. • For the same reason, it was not feasible to cross the river to take population from D 3. • In this slide you get an overall picture of the slight shift to the east to take population from D 2. • The next slides, which we previously showed you in the context of D 2 provide a more close-up look of the slight movements east that we were able to make. • Again, this first slide shows part of the eastward movement on the middle of the district. • It shifts the boundary east from North Miami avenue to NW 2nd avenue and from the 195 expressway down the 395 expressway • The next slide shows the bottom part of that eastward movement I just explained beginning on NW 22 street to the north and down to the 395 expressway 7 Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • And this next slide shows the eastward movement south of the 395 expressway moving slightly east from Nw 1st street to North Miami avenue and south to SE 2nd street. • Simply stated, we could not move further east without diminishing the African American community's opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice. • Finally, the next slide shows the population we moved from D5 to D 1 along the river. • As we discussed, this area is heavily Hispanic, and had much more voter cohesion with D1 than D5. • Also, moving this area into D 1 was consistent with the voting rights act, in that it moved this Hispanic community into a district where they could also participate in electing a candidate of their choice. • This last slide gives you an overview of the entire plan. • So in summary, we believe that our preliminary plan complies with constitutional and voting right act criteria. • We also were cognizant of the additional directives you gave us. • As you've seen, every district maintains its core configuration and the vast majority of its existing population. • We tried as much as possible to move areas into districts with similar voting patterns. • We presented a preliminary plan with a low overall deviation in order to give you as policy -makers the flexibility to make additional changes. • And we tried wherever possible to maintain communities of interest and traditional neighborhoods, • Although that was not completely possible due to the need to balance population. • It is however, a work in progress that provides flexibility to make additional changes so long as those changes have a rational basis. C: • Submitted into the public record for item(s) SPA, on 02-07-2022, City Clerk • With that, I'm happy to address any questions you may have. .I