12-05-1983 Public Hearing La Porte City Council'

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y.. ... ~-~..~-w<,~-: Minutes, Public wring, La Porte City Coun~ December 5, 1983, Page 4 3. Till very recently the residents in our district have been told that there was no chance for annexation until 1985. We were told that the Justice Department would not approve any such annexation because it would dilute the Black vote. What happened to change this? City Attorney Askins: Those representations were not made by this City Council, so I don't believe we could speak on them. I don't know what was told to you out there. I will say I'm quite familiar with the voting rights act, I've already drafted the preliminary draft of the application on this annexation. It could have been some confusion on the 1985 date, because I did a memo- of .this City Council more than a year. ago urging that any major annexations be completed this year because during calendar '84 a redistricting committee would have to work on a redistricting which is required under our charter on the publication of every federal census, which is every 10 years and then halfway in between, which would be 5 years, which would be 1985. And to have that. done in time for 1985 elections and approved by the Justice Department, as Mrs. Westergren has pointed out, you pretty well have to do and complete in 1984 and get it approved. Certainly there will be from the preliminary statistics I have seen, there will be a somewhat of a dilution of the black vote in the. City at large as a result of this annexation because there is not a very great minority population there. Now under the charter of the City of La Porte, there is a provision that annexation be- tween redistrictings the annexed areas shall become a-part of the • district to which it's contiguous. .That means that this annexa- tion, if completed by Council, will be a part of Council district number two,. which is what we call the west Fairmont district. Councilman Longley is the elected representative from that district and will remain a part of district two till the redistricting in -1985. At that time the entire City will have to be redistricted to a population tolerance between district of no more than plus or minus five percent, and that's the outer limit; they like for it to be less than that. The City of La Porte has a burden of proof, as any City does when each annexation we have to file with the Justice Department, and that's already in draft form, to be submitted to them the day after the annexation is completed for their approval under the Voting Rights Act. The Justice Department will study that brief, maps that are submitted with it, statistics, demographics that are submitted with it. They will contact key minority leaders in this community to get their comments, and they have 60 days to study it and they can ask for a 30 day extension to give their approval. If the Justice Department would feel that the annexation would have a negative effect on minority voting rights, they can disapprove it. In the states that are under the. Voting Rights Act, which Texas and most of the other southern states are, the Justice Department requires this clearance--what's called pre-clearance. And we are hopeful this can be accomplished before the April election, and we believe that it can.. On your voting question, if this • annexation is completed in 1983, the residents of the annexed areas will be eligible to be candidates immediately for City office and be eligible to vote in the City election in April.