Kevin Roden for Denton City Council

June 21 – Council Meeting Post-Script

June 22nd, 2011Uncategorized4 comments

Here’s a quick follow-up to tonight’s meeting – I’ll try to tie the points to the earlier preview points:

REDISTRICTING
Heard a report and spent time with two options presented by consultants on modifying the city’s four council districts in order to account for the change in population from the last time this was done back in 2001.  District 4 has grown significantly while other parts of town have not.  The goal of redistricting is to attempt a total population balance among the various districts without significantly disrupting the voting power of traditional minority pockets within the city (District 1, my district, happens to have the largest population of minorities when you consider the high number of Hispanic and African-American residents.

The following is one of the options – an option the council is considering modifying a bit in order to prevent the break-up of certain neighborhoods:

This would bring the four districts into relative equality in terms of total population.  But a question I continue to have, which is important to my district, is how this pans-out in terms of actual registered voters and actual voters.  In other words, does the total population always give you an accurate picture of the voting power of a particular district? Provoked by that question, I crunched some numbers and my suspicions were confirmed.  Below is a table that shows the current district situation and the two proposed options – it shows the disparity, particularly in District 1, between the total population and the number of registered voters (and ultimately the number of voters).  So while we are balancing out the population, the practical situation is not balanced at all – but realize we are dealing with Department of Justice rules that have legal precedent guiding the consideration.  This may not be as big of an issue when it comes to elections for district specific seats.  But it does come into play when we have at-large elections.  If I were a sleazy politician running for an at-large position, I’d take a look at these numbers and might have a good reason to ignore the interests of District 1, given their low voting power relative to the other three districts.  Here are those stats that I crunched and provided to council today:

So what do you think?  This issue will be brought to the citizens for further discussion and even the opportunity for you to propose your own redrawing of district lines.  I have asked that the process be presented online for your consideration, along with readable maps of the proposed lines.  The goal is to finalize a plan in September and have the plans approved by the Department of Justice in time for the May 2012 at-large elections.

STATE LEGISLATION
We received an update on the legislation (some still in progress in special session) that might impact Denton.  The Texas Tea Partiers came into power with the assumption that they would yield influence.  Unfortunately, their enthusiasm to return powers to the individuals didn’t play out in many of their legislative priorities.  This session saw many attempts to take away local control of many issues in favor of state control (ironic given their approach to state vs federal issues and their desire to keep power in “local hands”).  Fortunately, apart from some financial grabs where the state is giving itself more local money (for instance, a greater percentage of the mixed beverage tax that would normally go to local municipalities), most of the harmful legislation did not survive.  This, of course, is not to mention the strike against local public education…

One particular item of interest – the Voter ID bill passed.  This initiative tended to cut along party lines, with Republicans pushing for it and Democrats seeing it as a way to diminish minority and low-income votes.  Instead of being able to simply show your voter registration card at the time of voting, voters need to also be able to present a state-issued photo ID at the point of voting.  Read this article for more information about it.  I have asked that we have a discussion about how the city can get on top of this issue and best educate our citizens about the changes in laws and voter expectations prior to the May 2012 city elections.

CITIZEN BOARD AND COMMISSIONS
To read more about these options, go here.  The council tonight began the option of nominating citizens to the various positions available on these boards.  We will visit this option again at the next meeting.  As soon as I finalize my nomination list, I will post it here for all to see.  With the exception of only a couple of boards, I am opting to retain the majority of the very helpful citizens appointed by my predecessor, Charyle Heggins.

DOWNTOWN INCENTIVE GRANT MONEY
Mellow Mushroom’s request for a $15,0000 grant was approved as part of the consent agenda.  The property owners of the elevated yellow house on Bell just beside the Center for the Visual Arts building, along with the anticipated business owners of Denton’s own “Aw Shucks,” presented their case at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting.  The city’s Economic Development Partnership Board had previously voted not to grant their $5000 grant request for facade improvements.  I see this project as a much-needed spark of business interest on the “other side” of Bell Avenue.  It will be a great amenity near the train, it will no doubt attract more interest in the area, it will be much more accessible to folks in the surrounding neighborhoods (in traditional SE Denton), and it begins the process of extending the downtown area in this direction.  Because questions of why it wasn’t recommended for approval, I along with others asked for further discussion to be had at the next council meeting.

NOISY PARTY REQUEST
The request was put in to allow a late night loud party on Myrtle Street between the hours of 10pm and midnight at the beginning of July.  The Parks department recommended denial of the request after learning that there have been 5 complaint calls about this residence in the last year.  Unfortunately, the nature of those calls or the source of them was not available.  I was not comfortable punishing folks who were trying to work through the system with such little information.  Ultimately, another council member suggested that we split the difference and allow the noise exception until 11pm instead of midnight.  I went along with that compromise.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!  kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com