Last pre-map hearing held

Next is drawing of district boundary draft maps, plus two more public hearings

Three Porterville residents spoke Tuesday at the city council’s last pre-map public hearing, which the council held to receive public input for criteria in the drafting of district boundary maps.

Before they each spoke, City Attorney Julia Lew read a data summary provided by National Demographics Corporation (NDC) — the city’s consultant in its district conversion process — which stated that 62 percent of Porterville’s population is Latino, about 51 percent of which are eligible voters.

“So each of the five districts would have about 10,833 residents,” Lew said, adding that, “For each district map that is drafted, they [NDC] will try and meet this data profile so that you are looking at comparablesized districts when we have our options.”

The data summary document Lew read off of was a little too small for the eyes of Porter-

“I don’t really think I want to be in a district where nobody else votes. I want to be in a district where people pay attention.” Porterville resident Ellen Nichols on issues about district map boundaries

ville resident Ellen Nichols, which prompted her to ask if the council could make each district map that is drafted readable for those who have trouble reading small print.

“This [data summary] is so tiny that it is hard to read, it is hard to tell what street is where,” Nichols said. “Those of us who are my age don’t read something this size very readily.”

Lew responded, stating that all information regarding the district maps will be available on the city’s website so the public can view it.

Nichols also noted that in the previous election there weren’t enough registered voters in her area to have a precinct, which caused her to have to send in an absentee ballot. When creating district boundaries, Nichols said she hopes the council will take that issue into consideration.

“I don’t really think I want to be in a district where nobody else votes,” Nichols said. “I want to be in a district where people pay attention.”

Porterville resident

Brock Neeley said one thing he would like the council to consider is creating boundary lines so people know what district they are in.

“If you take a look at some of these districts, it is like ‘what district am I in,’” Neeley said. “They [residents] don’t even know who to contact if they have an issue with that particular board or jurisdiction.”

Porterville resident Jerry Hall said he is opposed to the council converting to by-district elections.

“The council is presently constituted as more than adequate to address the needs of the diverse population of our city and I believe the makeup of our council demonstrates that diversity that we already possess,” Hall said. “We are not a segregated community, we are integrated, we live together and we should be able to continue to live together.”

Lew said when forming districts, under federal law, the council needs to have districts that are equal in population, don’t discriminate racially and comply with the Federal Voting Rights Act.

“Even though the case is filed alleging a racial discrimination, we can’t use racial factors, or at least the obvious racial factors, when coming up with the districts,” Lew said. “That is the way the law works.”

Instead, Lew said the council needs to look at communities of interest — a neighborhood or community of shared interest, views, problems

or characteristics

— when forming districts and also make them compact and keep them contiguous. A good way to do this, Lew said, is to use visible, natural or manmade boundaries such as railroad tracks, highways, major roads, rivers, canals and/or hills.

She added that the council can also look at school attendance areas, parks, common issues, neighborhood activities or legislative election concerns.

“Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t,” Lew said of the different options to use to form districts. “It kind of depends on the makeup of your community.”

Lew said another option the council has is shared demographic characteristics such as levels of income, education or linguistic isolation.

“The second question is does a community of interest want to be united in one district or be divided in multiple districts,” Lew questioned. “Because honestly, you [city council] have to look at whether or not you want to consolidate that community of interest or whether they want to have some power amongst other districts.”

She continued, “That is always good input to get because you [city council] don’t just want to assume that you know the answer to that question for any given community of interest,” Lew said.

If possible, Lew said the council could also have every council member that is currently sitting in a different district.

“You can do that, but it just depends, sometimes it is not possible,” Lew said.

Hall said he believes districting should be based on more important criteria than where current or any future council members live.

“We all live where we choose to live, we all choose to have the addresses we represent as being ours,” he said.

Neeley, who created a map of the city on which he plotted where each council member resides, said the map shows that not one lives west of Highway 65.

While making district maps, Lew said the council will have to also look at planned future growth.

“That is going to be an issue as well because, beginning after the 2020 census, we will be required to re-evaluate our boundaries and our districts to make sure that they haven’t changed in light of the census data that is received,” Lew said, adding, “We will have to re-draw them after those censuses are taken.”

Now that the pre-map public hearings are complete, Patrice Hildreth, the city’s administrative services director, said the next course of action the council will take is drawing draft maps, a process that will involve two additional public hearings.

The next city council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7, in the council chambers at Porterville’s City Hall.