Jacksonville City Council prepares for redistricting (via TU)

[Singejoufflue]

The Jacksonville City Council will have a tight schedule when it undertakes its once-a-decade duty of rewriting its district lines.

Though the 2010 census won’t be certified until the spring, conversations must begin now to ensure a plan is in place before census data is finalized. When that happens, the council will have only 30 days to set a reapportionment plan.

“A lot of heavy lifting needs to occur within the next four months,” council President Jack Webb said during a meeting Thursday morning to discuss the process.

Webb decided against appointing a special reapportionment committee, as was the case in the past. Instead, Chairwoman E. Denise Lee and her Rules Committee will handle the job. Lee also headed up the council’s redistricting efforts in the ’90s and had some involvement in the legislative reapportionment process 10 years ago as a member of the Florida House.

The council will eventually approve new boundary lines for 14 single-member districts, as well as the residency boundaries for five at-large seats.

The seven School Board seats are each comprised of two council districts.

For the past few reapportionments, the council hired outside consultants to assist in the complex process of drawing boundary lines and studying the demographics of various neighborhoods. But Webb said he wants to look into using existing resources like the Planning Department, Supervisor of Elections Office and the city’s Geographic Information System to save taxpayer dollars this round.

The council’s biggest concern is ensuring each of the 14 districts have roughly the same number of people. Another top priority has been maintaining districts with a high concentrations of African-American voters in order to ensure there are minorities serving on the council and School Board.

“It was the practice of the Jacksonville City Council that they follow that,” said Lee, who represents one of those minority districts. “That you in fact make sure that there is fair representation.”

In November, Florida voters approved two constitutional amendments that outlawed gerrymandering in the creation of legislative and congressional districts. However, Jacksonville voters have not been asked to weigh in on gerrymandering for local seats.

Once an initial plan is submitted, the Rules Committee will hold a series of public hearings to allow voters to chime in. If the maps are substantially altered along the way, more public hearings will be added.

In July, at least seven new council members will take office and immediately be thrown into the reapportionment debate. The council must adopt a new plan within eight months of receiving the final census numbers, meaning the process would likely end in November 2011.

I for one am immensely interested in this redistricting.  I live smack on the border between Districts 1 and 7 (the part that looks like the middle finger...) in Arlington and, let's just say, neither of the current Councilman have shown interest in this area.  Poor decision making back in '01...what greatness will come in '11?

[Charles Hunter]

Let's hope they drop the "requirement" from the last two rounds that made sure incumbents were protected.  That is part of the reason for some of the strange shapes.

BTW, I have no reasonable expectation that my hope will be realized.

[tufsu1]

It would also be nice to find a way where parts of downtown aren't in the same Council district as the SJTC and UNF

[CS Foltz]

At least Mr Webb has the taxpayers best interest's in mind by using existing resources rather than consulting it out! (Sorry tufsu!) Makes sense to me to go that route, if the existing resources can do the job and thats where I may have issue's but would look at just what comes out of this first.............I am trying to keep an open mind but looking at how districts are layed out now, don't see a whole lot of major changes taking place either! Time will tell.

[tufsu1]

no prob CS....I am very much in favor of using government staff to do studies where possible....unfortunately it isn't always a viable option....like at the state level, where departments have been starved of resources for decades, leaving it difficult for the remaining staff to take on additional responsibilities

[fsujax]

combine Downtown and Springfield.