08-06-2001 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • Page 2 - 8-6-01 Minutes Lines kept neighborhoods of similar types and make up together. Lines protected incumbents and kept them within their current districts. Lines were drawn in attempt to be relatively equal in population. Handouts were provided to the committee from Planning Coordinator Masood Malik and Ed Matuszak. It was noted the committee would also review the guidelines to be passed by City Council at the 8/13/01 meeting in working on future maps and recommendations. The committee discussed the following previous business: Chairman Sidney Grant reviewed his notes from the first meeting and reminded the committee of the following guidelines to be followed according to instructions given to the committee by City Council and the City Attorney as part of the guidelines Ordinance: • Where possible, easily identifiable geographic boundaries will be utilized as single member city Council District boundaries; • Historic communities of interest shall be maintained in a single district where possible, and to the extend possible neighborhoods shall not be split when drawing district boundaries; ~! •-~ • It is recognized that due to the size of the City of La Porte, it is ~os~ible to use County voting precincts when drawing district boundaries; • The new district plan shall be based on the existing Benchmark plan, to the extent possible; • Districts shall be drawn relatively equal in population size and in no event shall there be a plus or minus five percent (10% maximum to minimum) deviation in population between districts; • Districts shall be drawn that are compact and contiguous; • The new district plan shall recognize incumbent/constituency relationships, and consideration shall be given to the preservation of incumbent-constituency relationships by recognition of the residence of existing members of the City Council, and their history in representing their current Districts; • The plan shall be narrowly tailored to avoid retrogression to the extent possible in the position of racial minorities and language minorities as defined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended, with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.