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Single-member districts loom on today’s Council agenda
Thursday, February 28, 2008 by Austin Monitor
A mostly gray-haired audience of about two dozen members of the League of Women Voters and the ACLU showed overwhelming support Tuesday night for a proposal to move to a system of geographically based districts for Council members.
The proposal could go before voters in November.
The City Council will hear a briefing at 2pm and will also hold a public hearing at 6pm on single-member districts today. They may also consider a resolution from Council Members Sheryl Cole, Brewster McCracken, and Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley calling for setting certain criteria to be met before the Council puts the single-member district proposal up for a public vote.
The sponsors want the Charter Revision Committee to recommend a specific district plan, how often redistricting will take place, salaries for at-large Council Members and those elected from single-member districts, a plan for transitioning to single-member districts, and proposed ballot language. The resolution states that “a single member district runs the risk of eliminating African American representation on the City Council” and that “any district system would likely increase the size and cost of government”.
Council Member Mike Martinez, who has supported the move to single-member districts, told those at Tuesday night’s meeting he was not satisfied with the resolution put forth by his colleagues. “I don’t think there are bad questions in this resolution,” he said, referring to concerns over the potential cost of expanding the Council. “But I think there are some bad premises that lead to some of the language in the resolution. I think there appears to be an attempt to create a threshold that is very difficult to meet, and I think that is a concern.”
On Wednesday, McCracken said the ideas need more public discussion. “Council Member Martinez’ statement indicates that he agrees that the items in our resolution need to be addressed in a change in our form of government,” he said. “So the question is whether the voters of Austin have these items kept secret from them—or not even planned in the advance—or whether they are told of the full impact of the district system that he is proposing. These are all things that will have to be done.”
McCracken said there are a number of issues that
Thursday’s briefing and public hearing were originally scheduled when the Council believed the issue would likely be on the May 10 ballot. Since the issue will not go before the voters until November,
Furthermore,
Council Member Cole’s executive assistant, Beverly Wilson, attended Tuesday’s meeting for the Council Member and told the group that Cole would be opposed to any system that diluted African-American representation. Charter Revision Committee member Roxanne Evans, who was on the three-member panel leading the discussion, also told the group she had not been convinced the city needed to adopt the system. Evans was one of the members of the committee who submitted a minority report opposing single-member districts.
However, the other two members of the panel, Charter Revision Committee member Stephen Shang and Rudy Williams with the Organization for Central East Austin Neighborhoods (OCEAN), were firmly in support of single-member districts. Williams said he was upset at the language in the draft of the resolution being circulated at Tuesday night’s meeting. “It’s almost a poison pill in terms of getting the issue discussed,” he said. “We have a group of Council members who do not even want us to broach the topic.”
As for Council member’s concerns about maintaining minority representation, Williams said that in his opinion, “right now, representation does not exist at all. You can draw these districts where you have opportunity for a minority to win. For one, African American representation is non-existent right now. And I would say the same for Hispanic representation, not that I don’t respect Mike or Sheryl Cole, but they do not represent… you can’t tell what they represent,” he said. “They may represent the campaign money, they may represent the entire city, but we do not have minority representation.”
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