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HomeMy WebLinkAboutO-2001-2502 e e ORDINANCE NO. 2001- ~5 0 ~ AN ORDINANCE DETERMINING THE POPULATION OF THE CITY OF LA PORTE AND THE POPULATION OF EACH OF THE COUNCIL DISTRICTS AND DETERMINING THAT THE POPULATION OF THE RESPECTIVE EXISTING CITY COUNCIL DISTRICTS ARE MATERIALLY UNBALANCED; DIRECTING THE REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF LA PORTE TO DRAW NEW SINGLE-MEMBER CITY COUNCIL DISTRICTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH CRITERIA ESTABLISHED HEREIN; MAKING VARIOUS FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; FINDING COMPLIANCE WITH THE OPEN MEETINGS LAW; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, Article II, Section 2.01 (b) of the City of La Porte Charter provides that in at least every five (5) years following the publication of the 1980 Federal Census, the City Council shall conduct an investigation and determine the population of the City and the population of each of the districts from which District Council Members are to be elected; and WHEREAS, the City Council, having received the best available data including the 2000 Federal Census, together with expert assistance from the City's Planning Department, has determined the population of the City and each respective City Council single-member District; and WHEREAS, said data shows that a material population imbalance exists within the existing City Council Single-member Districts; and WHEREAS, to ensure that future elections are timely and orderly, the City must proceed to draw new districts to overcome such imbalance, and to obtain preclearance of such districts under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. ~1973c; and WHEREAS, Article II, Section 2.03 (b) of the City of La Porte Charter provides that a Regular Election for a choice of members of City Council shall take place on the e e first Saturday in May, 2002, and no redrawing of council districts can take effect until precleared under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended, which could delay the effect of newly drawn district boundaries by 60-120 days after City Council adopts such districts; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LA PORTE, TEXAS: Section 1. The City Council determines that the population of the City and its constituent City Council Districts are as indicated in Exhibit "A", attached hereto and made a part of this Ordinance for all purposes. Section 2. The City Council finds that, based on the estimated population .found in Section 1 hereof, that the distribution of population among the various City Council Districts is materially unbalanced. Section 3. The City Council supports and authorizes the initiation of the process of redrawing city council districts utilizing the population determinations found in Section 1 hereof. The Redistricting Committee of the City of La Porte, heretofore appointed by the City Council of the City of La Porte in Ordinance 2460 in December 2000, is directed to reconfigure single-member city council districts pursuant to the procedures set forth and established in Exhibit "B", attached hereto and fully incorporated by reference herein. Reconfigured single-member districts shall follow as closely as possible with the district configurations adopted by City Council in Ordinance No. 1775 (the "Benchmark Plan"), passed by the City Council of the City of La Porte on e e August 12, 1991, and thereafter precleared by the Department of Justice by letter dated February 21, 1992. Section 4. If any provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause of phrase of this Ordinance, or the application of same to any person or set of circumstances is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, void or invalid, the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance or their application to other persons or sets of circumstances shall not be affected thereby, it being the intent of the City Council in adopting this Ordinance that no portion hereof of provision or regulation contained herein shall become inoperative or fail by reason of any unconstitutionality, voidness or invalidty of any other portion hereof, and all provisions of this Ordinance are declared to be severable for that purpose. Section 5. The City Council officially finds, determines, recites and declares that a sufficient written notice of the date, hour, place and subject of this meeting of the City Council was posted at a place convenient to the public at the City Hall of the City for the time required by law preceding this meeting, as required by the Open Meetings Law, Chapter 551, Texas Government Code; and that this meeting has been open to the public as required by law at all times during which this Ordinance and the subject matter thereof has been discussed, considered and formally acted upon. The City Council further ratifies, approves and confirms such written notice and the contents and posting thereof. Section 6. This Ordinance shall be effective from the date of its passage and approval, and it is so ordered. e e PASSED AND APPROVED THIS THE .!3toAY OF ~ 2001. CITY OF LA PORTE By: !Lh>7?~~ No man Malone, Mayor ATTESTATION: ~ . By: 0Y\ ~~ 11l11i Martha Gillett, City Secretary e e ~ ~... ... tr-";'1 r"71 EXI5I1NG DlsrRlCI'S POPULA1ION CITY o. IA -... .mlSTlllCt1NO ICZ__) - .~ \ '\. I I I ~ I U:.1~ tn.':l';' .I!IlI!IUIIlII - 73112 5314 ,- - 1217 ~',IIlI JISI8l:JlI , :a 3 4 I . e EXHIBIT liB" e CITY COUNCIL CRITERIA FOR THE REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE TO FOLLOW IN CORRECTING THE MATERIAL POPULATION IMBALANCE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN EXISTING CITY COUNCIL SINGLE-MEMBER DISTRICTS . New City Council Single-member Districts shall be drawn pursuant to promulgated Department of Justice regulations. Each City Council District within the City of La Porte may have a population deviation of no more than plus or minus five percent (+/- 5). Thus, utilizing the best available population data as provided by the Federal Census for the year 2000, and as set forth on Exhibit "A", the population of the City of La Porte is 31,880 total citizens. For each single member district, then, the ideal population is 5,213 persons. Utilizing the regulations promulgated by the Department of Justice, and taking into account the maximum deviation allowable thereunder, a IIhigh" number for any particular district shall be 5,579 persons; and a II low" number for any particular district shall be 5,047 persons. . Pursuant to the above mandate, new districts shall be drawn according to the following criteria: a. Where possible, easily identifiable geographic boundaries will be utilized as single member City Council District boundaries; b. Historic communities of interest shall be maintained in a single district where possible, and to the extent possible neighborhoods shall not be split when drawing district boundaries; c. It is recognized that due to the size of the City of La Porte, it is not possible to use County voting precincts when drawing district boundaries; d. The new district plan shall be based on the existing Benchmark plan, to the extent possible; e e e. Districts shall be drawn relatively equal in population size, and as noted above in no event shall there be a plus or minus five percent (10% maximum to minimum) deviation in population between districts; f. Districts shall be drawn that are compact and contiguous; g. 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; h. 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. . The Redistricting Committee shall draw initial plans utilizing the above criteria to the extent possible. Thereafter, such plan or plans shall be presented to the public for review and comment. No less than fifteen (15) calendar days notice shall be given of any public hearing held by the Redistricting Committee in connection with the proposed map or maps. The notice shall be posted in the Public Notices section of the La Porte Bayshore Sun. More than one public hearing may be held by the Redistricting Committee, as it deems necessary, but in no event shall a public hearing be held without the aforementioned notice. . After public input on each map or maps considered by the Committee, and after thorough review by staff and the Committee in accordance with the criteria set forth above, the Committee is charged with making a report to the City Council, identifying in each map or maps submitted to the City Council adherence of each map or maps to the criteria established herein. If more than one map is submitted, the e 6 Committee shall rank each map in terms of adherence to each of the respective criteria established in this ordinance. . The Redistricting Committee shall keep all of the information it acquires together with all working. papers and maps produced by the Committee, whether the said map or maps and working papers are "official" or not. All information obtained by the Committee shall be available to the public at all times in accordance with the provisions of the State of Texas Freedom of Information Act.