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HomeMy WebLinkAbout029273 RES - 11/08/2011RESOLUTION NO. 029273 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS ADOPTING CRITERIA FOR USE IN THE REDISTRICTING 2011 PROCESS; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the City Council and Mayor have certain responsibilities for redistricting under federal and state law, including but not limited to, Amendments 14 and 15 to the United States Constitution, U.S.C.A. (West 2006), and the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1973 and 1973c (West 2010); and Tex. Gov't Code Ann. §§ 2058.001 and 2058.002 (Vernon 2008); and WHEREAS, the City Council and Mayor have certain responsibilities for redistricting under the City Charter; and WHEREAS, on review of the 2010 Census data, it appears that a population imbalance exists requiring redistricting of the City's councilmember districts; and WHEREAS, it is the intent of the City to comply with the Voting Rights Act and with all other relevant law, including Shaw v. Reno jurisprudence; and WHEREAS, a set of established redistricting criteria will serve as a framework to guide the City in the consideration of districting plans; and WHEREAS, established criteria will provide the City a means by which to evaluate and measure proposed plans; and WHEREAS, redistricting criteria will assist the City in its efforts to comply with all applicable federal and state laws. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, NUECES COUNTY, TEXAS: A. THAT the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, in its adoption of a redistricting plan for city councilmember districts, will adhere to the following criteria to the greatest degree practicable: 1. Where practicable, easily identifiable geographic boundaries should be followed. 2. Communities of interest should be maintained in a single councilmember district, where practicable, and attempts should be made to avoid splitting neighborhoods. 3. To the extent practicable, councilmember districts should be composed of whole voting precincts. Where this is not possible or practicable, councilmember districts should be drawn in a way that permits the creation of practical voting precincts and that ensures that adequate facilities for polling places exist in each voting precinct; and splitting census blocks should be avoided. 029273 INDEXED 4. Although it is recognized that existing councilmember districts will have to be altered to reflect new population distribution, any districting plan should, to the extent practicable, be based on existing councilmember districts. 5. Councilmember districts must be configured so that they are relatively equal in total population according to the 2010 federal Census. In no event should the total deviation in population between the largest and the smallest councilmember districts exceed ten percent. 6. The councilmember districts should be compact and composed of contiguous territory. Compactness may contain a functional, as well as a geographical dimension. 7. Consideration may be given to the preservation of incumbent -constituency relations by recognition of the residence of incumbents and their history in representing certain areas. 8. The plan should be narrowly tailored to avoid retrogression in the position of racial minorities and language minorities as defined in the Voting Rights Act with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise. 9. The plan should not fragment a geographically compact minority community or pack minority voters in the presence of polarized voting so as to create liability under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973. B. The City Council and Mayor will review all plans in light of these criteria and will evaluate how well each plan conforms to the criteria. C. Any plan submitted by a citizen to the City Council and Mayor for their consideration should be a complete plan—i.e., it should show the full number of councilmember districts and should redistrict the entire city; must show all councilmember district boundaries in detail sufficient to permit the City to reproduce the proposed plan accurately; and also report the total population and voting age population for Hispanics, non -Hispanic Blacks, non -Hispanic Asians, and non -Hispanic Anglo/other for each proposed district, based on 2010 Census data. The City Council and Mayor may decline to consider any plan that is not a complete plan with sufficient geographic and population detail. D. All plans submitted by citizens, as well as plans submitted by staff, consultants, and members of the City Council should conform to these criteria. E. This Resolution shall be effective upon passage by the City Council. PASSED AND APPROVED by the City Council of the City of Corpus Christi, Texas this` day of jJO 4 - , 2011. ATTEST: Armando Chapa, City Secr APPROVED AS TO FORM: Carlos Valdez, City Attorn CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI: Joe A ame, Mayor ,e OZ? -2-73 AUTHORIAL', ST COUNCIL ,.. . SECRETAR UJ Corpus Christi, Texas of 00k 4 --19-e , 2011 The above resolution was passed by the following vote: Joe Adame Chris N. Adler Larry Elizondo, Sr. Kevin Kieschnick Priscilla Leal David Loeb John E. Marez Nelda Martinez Mark Scott 029273