Travis County Commssioners Court
November 4, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item A4
Now, we previously indicated our intention to call up at 11:00 item a 4. Which is to consider and take appropriate action regarding Travis County involvement in legal action objecting to congressional redistricting efforts by the Texas legislature. I know now that part of this item needs to be taken up in executive session. Because we do need advice of council. It will be that part that we get to this afternoon. But this morning I did think it necessary for us to lay the item out f. There is a public comment that we need to receive, we can basically allow for that.
>> right. Judge, I -- I really appreciate the court taking up this particular item. As you know, I spoke before the court as far as citizens communication, working with the -- with the attorney's office to -- Travis County attorney's office to basically draft some language whereby we may be able to look at the Texas legislature redistricting plan. Of course now I think we are at a disposition to listen to comments from those that are participating here today, to see how Travis County may be impacted because of the county being divided into three basic congressional districts. So -- so of course we would have backup and as you know the -- the united states district court of east Texas, marshal, Texas area, you know, they have -- they have started things up and of course I really feel very strongly that -- that Travis County needs to take a position so with that, judge, of course we have had a lot of backup and again things have been moving so fast in this until -- it's been kind of hard to keep up with it and of course i've had to -- to pull this item off the -- off the agenda until we were basically ready to go forward. However, with the gearing up of the united states federal district court, and looking for them basically to make up some type of decision, as far as the cutoff point, as far as when -- when they will accept those that would like to join and get involved with this particular lawsuit, they -- I think that it's more appropriate that we bring this up if -- and of course we don't really know at this time whether the county will intervene or not as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but I do know that there are probably going to be a point as far as where Travis County and other entities are, the parties that would like to intervene as far as the lawsuit is concerned. With that I believe that we can virtually have folks that are here, we have several persons that are here. I don't think there's a signup sheet per se, but those that would likely come in here to testify and in looking at this as far as we feel that Travis County may be harmed or impacted, that -- in this particular division of the county into three different congressional districts as of -- as of the Texas legiature -- redistricting plan have moved forward to that disposition. So at this time I would like to ask those that would like to come up and provide testimony to the court and of course we can take this testimony and of course we do have the county attorney here and of course I think this particular testimony will be court recorded whereby we are making -- we may can look at this as we go farther into the future, as a building block, so at this time those that would like to come forward, judge, we are allowing that to happen.
>> can I ask a fundamental question before we get going?
>> yes.
>> the way that this is posted, it talks about taking action regarding our involvement in the legal action. It's not posted as a public hearing on the impact of the congressional redistricting effort. I'm just wondering if the narrowness, mr. County attorney, of the posting limits folks or not to keeping their comments germane to whether the county should get involved in the legal action. As opposed to that this becomes an open mic related to our feelings, positively or negatively about the redistricting effort. I'm just trying to make sure that we stay within what's been posted here. It's -- it wasn't my language, so I'm going to ask this question now as opposed to later.
>> your agenda contains a notation that you always take public testimony on any item, even if it's not posted as a opinion hearing. The Commissioners court, as the governmental body, is limiting your deliberations to the items that are posted. But the public in what they said to the Commissioners court, just like in your citizens communication, is not limited by the open meetings act and the public can stray as far as the chair of this meeting wishes to allow them to stray.
>> I just wanted to get that out there so if somebody says you all strayed off agenda that somebody up front said the public may stray as they wish so long as it is germane to this --
>> you guys can't stray, but the public -- inherent freedom to say what they would like.
>> just want to get that out there --
>> thank you, if you would like to address the court on this item, please come forward. Give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments. We have four chairs available. We normally break for lunch at 12:00 noon, but we start back up at 1:30.
>> judge. I'm albert stanley, I would like to set up a map so the court can --
>> there's an easel right there, the mic on the end pulls off, if you want to stand and give comments that would be -- that would be -- that will help you. Right next to you would be fine on this item. It would help if you come a little closer to the court. Actually right in this little space between the chair on the end at the clerk's table.
>> if I may, I would just like to begin my testimony seated, then I will stand up to the mic.
>> okay.
>> first of all, I would like to mention to the court the -- the timing that -- that has driven this. First of all, on -- on Thursday, October 30th, of last week, the judges in marshal, Texas issued an order that set a meeting for Monday, November 3rd, yesterday. And in that order, which I believe is parted of your backup information, part of your backup information, it talked about the judge's intention to move the trial to Travis County during the week of December 8th. Furthermore, after that order came out, I was -- I had just last week been put in contact with -- with the plaintiff's -- the lead plaintiff's attorney. [indiscernible] block in washington and was discussing with him how to strengthen this -- the complaint. I mentioned the possibility that had been arace sent at city council through councilmember brewster mccracken and at Commissioner court of the city and or the county possibly intervening. The attorney, same hirsch told me it would add value to the lawsuit, it would be a positive step in terms of strengthening the plaintiff's case. He also told me on Friday the day after the court order can came out, -- that the deadline for intervention would be this Friday, the 7th of November. That came as a complete surprise to me. So I -- I apologize for -- for the rushed nature of all of this. But we are under a court ordered dead line that did not become apparent until Thursday of last week. In today's paper, I read that the result of yesterday's meeting is that testimony will be taken in Austin on certain matters on December 8th and that the trial will begin in Austin on December 11th. In examining why Travis County might wish to intervene, let me say, Commissioner Sonleitner, i'll try to keep my comments germane. And not wander. Certainly, as the election administrator, that includes congressional elections within our county, there are impacts that you need to consider. Certainly with regard to the impacts in terms of representation in congress, effective representation in congress of the economic interests of Travis County, there are -- there are -- there will be impacts. And it's up to you to assess whether those impacts will be negative or not. I believe they will be. I would like to describe briefly I should say some of the impacts on the population of Travis County. And now i'll go to the map. The first map is a detail of essentially the central part of the county where the borders of the districts come together. And one thing that I would like you to notice is that, for example, precinct 138 here in northeast Austin has been split according to census blocks to grab specific populations. Notice how it -- this arm of -- of new congressional district 25 kind of creeps in and then spirals around to pick up certain blocks in the county. Not even to keep the precincts together. There are a couple of dozen individual voting precincts that are so split. Along the -- the county line. I mean along the borders here. And as an election judge appointed by this court, I know from experience that whenever there's a change in precinct lines, there is confusion by the voters. I think the voters in this case will be very confused about who their member of congress is, where they are supposed to vote in precinct 138 and in other precincts along here. I won't enumerate them all. But you can see along the border any time, I think that you are going to have an election headache of -- of different ballots, you are either going to keep the precincts together or if you split the precincts into two, you are probably going to not have a voting location in one of them in many instances and you are going to have to combine them for voting purposes. People will be coming up giving different precinct numbers to the administrators of the election. Being given different ballots on which different candidates for congress are running. Again in the same neighborhood, where I always voted for congressman x or the congressman of the 10th district here, people aren't going to know or understand, you know, with the system that we have, I will say that I'm [indiscernible] all the time with discouraged voters with whom the equipment is difficult, particularly older voters, an additional legal of frustration I think is going to make holding this election harder for you. This is looking at the detail level. Looking at Travis County in the context of the state map, here we are, here is district 21, which is comprised of portions of five counties. Here we are in district 10. Comprised of portions of seven counties. And district 25 comprised of portions of nine counties. Again I think when each congress person elected from these districts is trying to serve these rather unwieldily districts, somewhere in there is going to be a portion of Travis County. And they are going to also have to serve constituents and meet economic needs of entire regions, vast regions that are going to put Travis County, I believe, on somewhat of a back burner. I'm going to put down the microphone and go back to -- -- -- give you some specifics to consider. In new congressional district 10, 43% of the population resides in Travis County.
>> new congressional district [indiscernible] 40% -- excuse me, 43% of the population resides in Travis County.
>> [indiscernible]
>> I'm sorry.
>> 43% in both 10 and 21.
>> 43% -- I'm sorry. 43% of the district is comprised of Travis County. A portion of Travis County. 43% of the population of each district 10 and 21 is comprised of Travis County residents.
>> okay.
>> and in -- in district 25, 39% of district 25 is comprised of Travis County residents. The impact of that is in no district does Travis County comprise a majority of the population of that district. If you look at district 10 specifically, excuse me, district 25 specifically, you will find that 38% of the population this that district is residents of hildago county. 39% of Travis County. Almost an even one county versus another split. Which brings us to another aspect of these districts they tend to pit region against region in their electoral contests. I believe that having looked at this that it is quite possible that Travis County will not be able to elect one of its own residents as a member of congress. The -- the -- you know, I don't think, though, that the voters of hildago county who will presumably elect a member from one of their other districts, I don't think they are going to say in all fairness to our friends in Travis County we yield this congressional district to a Travis County resident. That will not happen. It will be hotly contested with -- with one region pitting their economic -- (end of audio for emergency broadcast test). (emergency broadcast testing signal on channel 17) (no video or audio) 281,000, I'm going to round to the nearest thousand, voters -- excuse me, population not voters, people are going to wind up in district 10. 278,000 voters in district 21. And 254,000 voters in -- in district 25. I would like to call attention specifically to Travis County's african american population. 27,000 african american voters will wind up in district 10. 8,000 in district 21 and 44,000 in district 25. That's a total of -- of 70 -- 79 the hundred or 80,000 -- 79,900 -- or 80,000, excuse me I used the word african american voters but I mean residents. Currently, of those african american residents of Travis County, 76,900, the vast majority live in the current 10th congressional district. I believe this court is obligated to consider the impact on those african american voters of being divided with -- with out of the 10th into th 21st -- but with a sizable minority of 27,000 left in the 10th, I think this is a very serious issue for this county to consider. I think that it is an impact. Finally, I have one more paper in my stack here. Okay. Okay. The fact is that -- the fact is that we will be the largest urban county in Texas without a congress nool district within our borders. We maybe the largest urban county in the nation that doesn't have the majority of its population in one congressional district. Austin and Travis County have benefited from being at the center of or containing the 10th congressional district for decades. I'm going to mention some of the most important federally funded project that's have benefited Travis County throughout the years. I mean over the decades. Can we imagine Travis County without the highland lakes. For flood control and electric -- for election cage under the lcra. What about research at the university of Texas at Austin under the apartmently named j.j. Pickle research center. How about the internal revenue service processing center which -- which creates full-time and seasonal employment for our residents? The m.c.c. Consortium. The semi make tech consortium. -- sematech consortium, Austin bergstrom airport federal highway funds, federal funds for police, fire, e.m.s. Under the new map Austin and Travis County will surely lose influence in washington before the factors I have enumerated. But if seniority means anything, we are going to lose seniority because this redistricting plan was designed to defeat incumbents. Every previous predistricting plan that I'm aware of since the one man, one vote ruling, which occurred between the 1960 and the 1970 censuses, has resulted in prerch vacation of incumbancy, preservation of seniority. I cannot think of a single example where a democratic or a an incumbent was defeated by redistricting. Yet the stated goal of this redistricting is to defeat incumbents. I think that the way they go about it is transparent, transparently speaks to that goal. Finally, I would like to say that last night I was reading the robert karow book master of the senate about lyndon johnson. It came to my attention that that some of the great ballots over civil -- battles over civil rights that occurred over the last century -- in the part that I was reading last night, it turns out that -- that they talk about the poll taxes. They instituted poll taxes often retroactive, sometimes to age 21, so that the amounts involved might be prohibitive for poor people. By 1901 every southern state had its poll tax. There was a poll tax in Austin, Texas. That this county administered. We have made so much progress here, but I think that we have a duty to make sure that -- that something as bad is not being done today. I ask you to not stand silent, but to -- but to join this case if you believe that -- that this unprecedented plan affects Travis County and all of us in Travis County negatively in terms of representation to congress and our voting rights, which is why I ask you to file a motion on Friday to intervene or in the alternative to gain amica status before the court. Thank you.
>> questions or comments. Thank you. Let's start and work our way around to the right. On the end here, if you would. Yes, sir?
>> my --
>> we would be happy to get your comments.
>> excuse me.
>> full name, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> very good. My name is james boeckles.
>> spell your last name, please.
>> eccles.
>> okay.
>> I delivered a letter to each of you yesterday. I very much appreciate the time that you all took in reading the letter and hearing my testimony here today. Travis County is my home and it's home to more than 800,000 people. Texas has 32 congressional districts. After the last census an ideal district in Texas contained 659,000 people. -- 651,000 people. It made sense that Travis County had a congressional district located within the county, the 10th congressional district, that represented most of us here. Now comes the new map. The 10th is no longer just inside Travis County but even worse than not having a congressional district dedicated to our county, the new map deprives Travis County residents from being a majority in any of the three districts assigned to it. It's hard for had he to imagine -- for me to imagine 800,000 of us living and working and going to school and raising families together in this county and we can't, as a group, choose a congressman between us. It's undemocratic. I'm not talking democratic party, I'm talking about the underlying principle of representation in democracy and a representative democracy where individuals and communities of interest elect a representative to represent them. As representative for your community in congress. Let's talk about communities. I'm what I consider a quint essential Austinite. I actually live a kirby lane, which is central Austin. On halloween last Friday, my four-year-old was a ladybug, the child not the wife. I got home from work early, as soon as the sun went down we went out there and started walking. We walked pretty far, a lot of houses and did a fair amount of walking, but under the new map, we trick or treatein three congressional districts. [laughter] from the play fort in my back yard I can look into three congressional districts. Apparently I have no community of interest with the people who live five blocks to my east and we have nocommunity interests with the people who live 8 blocks further. Apparently, I'm more like folks from harris county and they are more like folks from bexar county or hildago and star county. We've all heard the slogan keep Austin weird, having grown up in Austin I kind of like the slogan, but unfortunately it would appear that we're too weird. The way we think and the way we vote is so completely different that the only way to "handle" it is to chop up our community, our [indiscernible] community and mix it in with a bunch of other dissimilar communities in a big pot of 2 million texans in 20 counties and then assign three congressional districts to somehow represent something. I don't know what they are representing. But it's not Travis County. Which is why I'm here. This is where I live. This is my community. And it no longer has somebody in d.c. Looking out for it. My community. Travis County is growing. It's a thriving, highly populated community. The seat of our state's government. The location of its flag ship university, the site of much of our state's industry, technology, education, culture, how can it be the other large metropolitan county have dedicated congressional districts within them, and Travis County not only loses their, but then it end ceremoniously has it hacked into groups and districts where they can't eastern command a majority of votes. -- can't even command a majority of votes. I'm sorry but we are being punished. We are being discriminated against for being different, how we think and how we vote and this redistricting map ensures that Travis County will never be a decisive factor in a congressional race. It also ensures that no congressman is technically even really required to address Travis County. We are in essence pretty darned near expendable. Just from a numeric standpoint. I think we have to stand up as a county, as a community, and at least voice our disapproval to this. We have to stand and say that we are a community worthy of federal representation. A community of 800,000 who deserve to at least have a commanding influence on deciding one congressman. There's a consolidated federal lawsuit over this redistricting map. It's come out of marshal. It's going to be tried in Austin as alfred stanley said in about a month. I ask that Travis County join this suit as a party, and join in any and all ways possible to -- to defeat or change this map to make it better for our community. I join on behalf of the racial minorities whose voting influence in the 10th congressional district has been severely damaged. Join on behalf of the racial and political gerrymandering that's been imposed on Travis County in the state. Join for another reason. Join because Travis County is a community and deserves representation as a community. The Texas constitution actually mandates respects for county lines which [indiscernible] state representatives. Even though our state constitution is whoafully silent on federal redistricting, a cursory although even at this map show that's our county lines are observed as boundaries for most of these things. Our counties in Texas are de facto communities and it becomes more so the more population moves into them. It's not just cities. It's not just Austin, it's the greater Austin metropolitan area, it's Travis County. This is our community. It warrants congressional representation. The u.s. Supreme court has addressed the issue of political gerrymandering in the case of Davis versus vandemer you and found that unconstitutional discrimination occurs only are the electrical system is arranged in a manner that will consistently degrade a voter or group of voter's influence on the political process as a whole. How can the influence of Travis County and congress under the pending map be anywhere near what takes under the old map? We don't have a congressman anymore that resides in this county. That has a district that is confined within Travis County. It's -- Travis County is lumped into three districts, relevanted by congressmen responsible for representing two million texans spread out over 20 counties. I won't mislead the court, it's going to be a difficult fight. Some of it may even tread on novel legal ground. This was a particularly vicious redistricting in Travis County. I urge the county to go ahead and fight and try all the same. It's -- lastly, maybe too emotional, but you know in the eyes of the Texas legislature, Travis County isn't a community. It's a mere collection of people who share no more in common with each other than they do with people in any number of rural towns and metropolitan areas hundreds of miles away. Harris county, the rio grand, to the legislature. Apparently we don't deserve to maintain even a single congressman when we have the power to elect. As a county I believe we have to act against the pending map to ensure that we maintain at one congressional voice dedicated to our community. Please join the legal fight to stop the pending redistricting maps on any and all grounds, over 800,000 of my fellow citizens of Travis County, I believe, and my neighbors in Austin desve toableo at least elect one congressional voice. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> yes, sir?
>> hi, my name is robert hartle, I have lived in Austin on and off since 1985. And i've lived here continuously and voted since 1992. Really, mr. Stanley and mr. Eccles said a lot of what wasn'ted to say. I would just like to add in the time i've been here, Austin has grown more different from other parts of Texas. We are -- our economic and cultural interests have become more distinct from theirs. Not less. And with all -- with -- to -- with the extent to which we have grown, the new people that we have added to Austin, we've -- our economy is more dependent on technology than -- than other areas of Texas and we deserve represent staying, that's really all that I have -- representation. That's really all that I have to say.
>> good morning judge Biscoe and members of the court. My name is wilhemena delco I'm a registered voting tax paying member of Travis County. There have been a lot of statistics and comments and emotion spoken today. And I will not repeat that. I just want to emphasize one issue that is critically important. We elect people to represent us. Austin has a community of interest. That is a specific issue that is important to all of us. Austin has provided in Travis County leadership in a significant number of critical issues that have impacted this whole state. The Commissioners court, the city council, members of the legislature and our representative in congress have reflected that community of interest. A community of interest that reflects concern for our environment. A community of interest that has reflected our concern for quality education for all of our children. A community of interest that has reflected a -- an economic impact on employment, on the ability of people to not only find jobs, but actively recruit jobs to come to this area. That represent upward mobility and opportunity for all of our citizens. There has been a cooperation in Austin between the members of the Commissioners court, the state legislature, the city council, the school board and our representative in congress. It has enhanced the ability of Austin and Travis County to make a difference in the quality of life not only of the people in our county, but the people throughout the state. We are proud of this. We are fairly unique in this. We provide through your help the leadership that this state needs to continue to move forward, not backward, and make a difference. We do that in unity, we do that in strength, we do that through a ballot where we have someone that we can contact to express our concerns on a daily basis. We believe, Commissioners, we deserve that. We ask you to support us in preserving our community of interest by joining us in this effort to retain the quality and the congressional representation of Travis County. Thank you.
>> thank you, thank you ms. Delco, thank you.
>> medical elissa gonzalez and -- melissa gonzalez, I live in Sunset Valley in Travis County. One person, one vote. That's the most important thing that we have here. The most precious thing that -- that I own to make a difference in this world in my opinion is my vote. My time, my energy. The -- but surely my vote. That is what I'm asking you to defend here. I'm asking you to defend one person, one vote. And this is what is at risk here. Not only here but all over the county. One of the things that we are seeing in articles in the new york times, in the washington post, l.a. Weekly, all over the country, I would be happy to submit those articles, they are looking to what's happening here in Texas as an after front on our representation and it is something that we really need to notice that -- that it's not just Travis County that you are defending here, but you are defending one person and one vote. Because this is something that's happening in at least three other different states. We need to look at is how we can protect that. You people by the -- are the people who we have elected to be able to take this forward. I can't personally except for filing another lawsuit yell loud enough about how I want my vote to have meaning. To have my community represented. I can't do that. I need you to do it for me. I am asking you to really pay attention to this on behalf of all of us who you represent and to actually ensure the line of defense. What we have here is a total upside-down turning of what democracy is about. There are people in washington who came to Texas and said, "we want more representatives. We want groups like oil and gas to have their own person out of midland. Not the people who midland whose votes matter, but the oil and gas lobby. That's what's tearing -- that particular midland night is what finally tore Austin into three. That oil and gas needed representation is what shredded Travis County. That was the thing, so this is a total sun dering of what really matters. Our votes as people electing other people to speak for us. So we really need to go back to the grass roots and say, okay, we want everybody to vote. Okay, we want your vote to matter. This is what we protect. First we have us coming to you to say take this fight forward for us. We need you to take this fight forward and say people who vote, your votes matter. Your communities matter. This is the argument that needs to be taken forward and no, people who come from washington, with huge amounts of corporate money and run elections and run corporate people who are -- they are not represented the -- represent being the people who elected them but corporate interests, they are not the people who get to run this country. Individual voters who elect people, we have a grass roots coming up to our city councils, coming up to our Travis County Commissioners, coming up to our state representatives, then telling those people in washington this is not a top down corporation where washington gets to come back into Texas and take away our votes. That's what I am really asking you to do in this is to honor your -- you are the layer right above me. You are right above my vote. I'm really asking you to take my prayer that you hold our votes sacred and take care of those votes which -- which our county guides through elections, through everything else and guide them back to washington, back to the voice of the people. This is what really matters and I really hope that you as our representatives will take that fight forward, thank you so much.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> thank you.
>> the congressional -- the district is Sunset Valley and fredericksburg.
>> I haven't a clue. I sat there in those hearings --
>> presently.
>> presently I have lloyd doggett. Bless him, I have lloyd doggett.
>> yes.
>> my name is [indiscernible]
>> thank you.
>> santana, I live in precinct 3. Congressional district 10 currently. I'm here also to echo what pretty much everyone else has said about trying to keep our community as a single community. I have lived in Austin since 1975, I came up to the university of Texas and I would agree with a lot of the comments about how we are different than some of the rest of the state, but that isn't necessarily bad. I know that you have read some of the articles that have come out in some of the publications, locally and maybe in some of the national magazines about Austin being one of the cities of ideas. Where a lot of the economic engine of the country is being driven into these cities where a lot of people with fresh ideas and these economic, you know, ability to generate, you know, companies and corporations because there's -- there's a desire to -- to come to these cities because they are fresh, they are young, you have got usually a university associated with it, you have got something in these cities that is really, you know, driving a lot of the economic drive in the country. I would say that one of the reasons that Austin is that way is also our congressional representation. You have got one single person that represents this community and you have got a university that's very closely associated with this community as well. And we need that effort to -- you know, to remain with us because these are tough economic times. Not just as a community, as a city, as a county, as a state, so it really doesn't make any sense to me that not only are we going after, you know, breaking this community up. But we are doing it at a time when we can least afford it economically. It just doesn't make any sense, we need to move forward as a united community. To attack these budget issues. And I think that the -- that the most important thing to -- to keep in mind there is keeping congressional representation for this very large urban community, city of ideas, in one congressional district, I would urge that you do join this -- this lawsuit and help keep travis whole. Thank you very much.
>> thank you,.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> thank you.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> .
>> ... In washington often the republicans and tom delay in particular has moved who forward quite a bit. And if he was creating more republicans in a way that made sense, I maybe could live with that. Maybe not. But he's creating it in a way that takes Travis County and Austin in particular, Austin is big enough to have its own congressional district, and it's being split into three sections. It's -- Travis County is being split into three sections. This gives us more representation whatsoever. We're put together with sub subdivisions in san antonio and -- where no community of interest whatsoever is represented -- we're not represented. And I think we have a responsibility. As the woman who spoke before said, we -- we have -- we are losing our democracy in this process. This is not happening just in Texas. Texas is one of the examples. It's going to be used as a model for the future if they succeed here. When I look at what's happened to our economy in Travis County and our environment, I don't think we can afford not to have a representative. I think we badly need a representative. When I look at what's happened since 2000 at the united states economy and our environment, I say we can't afford any more republicans. When I look at how our administration is affecting the entire whole world to the deathment now, we are [ indiscernible ] being accused of not following tkrepl democratic people, the world can't afford more republicans. We don't need people who are going to champion water being privatize understand third-world countries where people can't afford electricity being privatized and it will come back home to us as well at some point, but right now these are the people who are suffering badly because they don't have clean water and they don't have electricity, they don't have power. I'm not even going to go into iraq, but it's --
>> tha you.
>> thank you.
>> but we need to safeguard what the people need. Not what the corporations need. We need to safeguard our -- our -- our people's needs. And this is being trampled at this point. And I say please keep our district intact. Keep lloyd doggett and keep his seniority. Which has done so much for our county and our area. And please join to intervene in the lawsuit for redistricting. Thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> good afternoon. My name is gary keith k-e-i-t-h, Travis County resident, resident of precinct 4. And I'm here speaking pel spell for myself today, though although I speak out of the background. I teach political science at university of Texas. And write textbooks on Texas and american politics and government. So I want to speak out of that experience that I have gained these last few years doing that teaching, research and writing. I want to speak some on the district maps, but you've heard some of the details about the maps. I want to focus more on how the congressional redistricting plan attacks the vital supports of representative democracy and how essential it is that it be challenged. That we challenge the action in the courts of law. And in the court of public opinion. And in the elections themselves. There's no Texas legislature that ever voluntarily redistricted itself. From the 19th century all the way up to 1951. Never. Every single redistricting they were brought kicking and screaming to the table. Until the constitution was amended to create the legislative redistricting board which created a push. Since 1951 the game has been different. But in all of the redistrictings, the history is pretty similar. Really whether we're talking about Texas or elsewhere, and that history is that the center of power, whatever that center of power is at any time, redistricts to consolidate its power. It happened before, it's happening now. It used to be that the rural centers of power redistricted or did not redistrict and the legislature refused to redistrict when the population shift was to the cities, and they would not redistrict so that the power center remained in the rural areas. Even amended the constitution in 1935 to forbid equal representation. Because it affected the center of power. So this history of the struggles of centers of power and the periphery of power goes back a long way. By the time we got to the 1960s, we had rotten bureaus. Badly out of boundary districts that became right in the constitution only because we had the baker versus c.a.r. Decision in 1962 that first allowed courts into the process of seeing this equal representation as a constitutional issue. Then with reynolds versus simms in 1964 establishing the principal pel that we must have one person, one vote for the constitution's equal protection provision to be real. Westbury versus sanders that same day then carrying this into the congressional arena. And a case that affect you all, avery versus midland coming out of Texas requiring county Commissioners courts to redistrict themselves to get this one person, one vote standard. If you look at the plan that the Texas legislature just adopted, they have heard the message about equal numbers in the districts. There is no variance. But since these cases established and then later cases ratified that there must be no variance, we must have equal numbers of people, the battles have shifted to other areas. Because it became apparent with the rise to the passage of the voting rights act of 1965 that there were tools in the redistricting process that could diminish equal representation even if you had equal numbers of bodies. So you have this whole series of cases that establish standards of districts need to be compact. Having to be contiguous. Respecting communities, respecting political subdivisions. But finally especially under the voting rights act the principle of non-retrogression. Mr. Stanley spoke some to this, the issue of given the states that come under the voting rights act and given their history of discrimination and representation and other areas against minorities, there could be no receipt tro tkpwregs in the representation. Of those groups. But that is a difficult standard to look at. And we can not sit here today and know what the outcome of this lawsuit is going to be because there are so many conflicting struggles and conflicting cases and directions that you can go with this. One of the cases from the supreme court says we need to look at the totality of the circumstances rather than one specific issue. And so either side in this case is going to latch on to a specific issue and use that as the argument in the case. As well they should. But in the end, the case is going to look at the totality of the circumstances of the redistricting of Texas. And if you look at this map, what you see is fingers. The districts are certainly contiguous. I mean, they had to really work to get one of them contiguous there in west Texas, but they are not compact. They are instead fingers. And if you look at the figures that go into the districts, they are not really fingers, they are dumb bells. What the legislature did was take communities of interest and refashion redistricting into a process that instead creates communities rather than being based on the communities that are there. Creating communities by finding two geographically disparate groups of people, two big ones and tying them together with a string in the middle and so you get dumbbells. I suspect that may be one of the issues that comes up in the courts, and again, I would urge you to join the suit because I believe that this is critical. One of the other issues of course is the non-receipt tro tkpwregs issue and that is that we currently have districts in Texas that have produced eight hispanic and black members of congress. The new plan we do not know how it will come out, but we do know from the figures that are in there that there are eight, maybe nine, maybe ten districts that might produce minority representation. But remember that the court is going to look at the totality of circumstances, not just a number and make a decision on a number. And when they look at Travis County, I suspect that Travis County is going to give them grief. In coming down to a decision on this. Because here you have a community, and if we were using the communities of interest principals, you have a community of between 500,000 and 600,000 people. You have an ideal congressional district size of 561,000 people, I think it is. But you take that community of interest of Travis County instead and you fracture it into three groups going in three different directions. Even that alone may pass constitutional or legal muster. But you take the minority communities of Travis County and what you find is that of the 80,000 or so african-american citizens here, that now reside almost skhraos tpheufl congressional district 10, they are tprabg turtd into three different districts. 8,000 in one district, 27,000 in another, 44,000 into another. That is a red flag. And it is worthy of taking to the courts and having them look at that. Some of those voters are joined in a way that they will have little to no influence in the congressional districts that they will now be assigned to. In district 25 you will now have a district that combines hispanic voters all the way to mexico with african-american voters in Travis County. The courts sometimes looked at minority groups separately, sometimes together. There may be some influence there. So all of this is confusing, and that's really what I would like to urge upon you, that this is a confusing matter and one that rather than simply sweeping it under the table, it was a political process at the legislature, they did their due, let's just go on with it, that it's something that needs to be straightened out, but more importantly than just straightening it out are the constitutional and philosophical issues. In addition to creating finger districts or dumbbell districts, in addition to this plan creating political communities of interest rather than the existing communities of interest that are there, what this plan does is to further delete american democracy because what it does is to create non-competitive democracy. We are fast getting to a full democracy in the united states. If democracy at its core involves the idea that we all compete with each other for control of government and for control of public policy, but our redistricting fashions districts that are not competitive and are not winnable by any but one group, then we have a full democracy. And this plan is in lock step creating certain groups of districts that -- in fact, if you look at the figures that are there, a competitive district would be one where you could expect 45 to 55% votes stphreut, something like that, one district, one out of 32 that falls within that. Both parties are to blame for this dynamic of creating safe districts and democracy is going to be the loser in all of it because it's not going to matter anymore without serious candidates on the ballot. And if the elections don't matter, voters aren't going to show up. If voters don't show up, the entire facade of democracy starts to crumble because the reality is that you don't have that kind of control. So there are these serious philosophical issues about democracy as well as the constitutional issues and the specific issues about the districts and minority representation and communities of interest that I think should compel us to join in the fight before the courts. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you for your commentary.
>> [ inaudible ].
>> it's not one and the same thing. That's not court reporting, it's closed captioning. It's not the same thing, but thank you.
>> judge Biscoe and members of the Commissioners court. I'm ann mcafee and it's ann with a e on the end and m-c-a-f-e-e I'm very concerned about the loss of communities of interest. I'm a life-long Austinite and my family has lived in Austin since 1839, the year that Austin was founded. And I think that the loss of the community of interest is really critical in so many ways, and in particular as would be a major loss economically for Austin and Travis County. Because many of the benefits that we get come from the very fact that we have a member of congress and now one who has split with the Travis County, but one member of congress at least who is voted entirely and solely -- devoted entirely and solely to Austin's interest and what happens in Travis County. And that affects not only bringing such groups as s phefplt itech to Austin, but it also effects what kind of funding we get for medicare and medicaid. It affects so many things that this court will have to -- if we lose that, this court will have to come in and pick up some of that flack and economic funding. And I think that's something that really members of this Commissioners court ought to keep in mind when thinking about whether or not to intervene in this lawsuit. And also it's important to maintain the seniority that we now have in congress. I think that serving on such committees as the ways and means committee, that's considered to be one of the most powerful committees in congress. It's also effects social security because the social security subcommittee is -- comes under the ways and means committee. Those are things that will affect every single person living in Travis County. And the idea of splitting this county into three districts where nobody has a majority, one great advantage I think we've all had is that we can go down to a grocery store and run into our member of congress. And then bend his ear about some issue that we care deeply about. I think when that -- if we split into three districts and we have a member of congress who has to travel down to mcallen or is from mcallen, then we're not going to have that advantage, and I think that we lose a big part of what we consider to be democracy in that kind of situation. So I urge this Commissioners court for the benefit of Austin and for the benefit of Travis County, for the benefit of all our citizens, I urge you to vote to intervene in this case. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much. We do have questions of legal counsel this afternoon.
>> have a seated.
>> i'll be brief.
>> state your name and comments.
>> I'm paul robbins, r-o-b-b-i-n-s, and I will be brief because there's not a whole lot I can add to what's been said. But I had the distinct pleasure of attending most of the hearings that were held in Austin on redistricting. And in several cases staying up till very late hours in order to testify. And the point I wish to make is that judging by the people that came to that hearing, your constituents want you to intervene. Nobody said that outright, but of the people in Austin and out of Austin that attended, probably above 90% were against the redistricting proposals. And of those in Austin, it was probably a similar percentage, if not more that were against the proposals. Given that, I would urge you to intervene on behalf of the people that testified that I assume represent the majority sentiment in Austin.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> appreciate it.
>> we do have questions of legal counsel that we will take this afternoon. My guess is that we'll go into executive session at about 2:30.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 5, 2003 9:52 AM