Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 21
21 is to consider and take appropriate action on Travis County redistricting processes, including public outreach program compolents and timetable for the following, a, Commissioners court precinct is, b, justice of the peace and constable precincts, and c, ee election precincted.
if I may just indicate, we will take 21, then 20, then go back and pick up the broadest item.
good morning.
>> good morning judge Biscoe, members of the court, governmentel relation officer for the county here with rovina jackson, the head of group solutions, who are the outreach consultants for our redistricting plan.
our goal this morning visiting with the court is to pry to get the court to approve a time line for the outreach process that is beginning as we speak.
I think everybody here has met with the consultants in order to begin the conversation about their redutting map for the customer slight.
now we are in the process of reaching out to the public in anticipation of a map that the court wants to go to the public with and series of public hearings at the end of this month.
you have in front of you a timetable that is part of your backup materials that was given to you.
in that timetable we set forth the outlines of the process.
but basically, there will be an outreach process over the next several weeks, leading up to the public hearings which will be held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, 27 30th, one in each precinct.
then there will be a hearing here at the granger building, I believe it is.
>> yes.
>> Tuesday July 12, which will be an opportunity for the publicsto to discuss both the existers map and any changes that may be made to the just tis of the peace and constable maps, as well as the first draft of the election maps of our redistricting consultants are working with all the various parties involved in trying to put together those maps.
but the first thing we want to get to the court and get to the public is the Commissioner precincts maps themselves.
with that in mind, you have a timetable in front of you.
you also have draft documents to be included in website notices, press releasesrs and notices to elected officials for fliers to be posted in offices as part of our outreach effort.
we also have a letter which I neglected to put in the backup but I will get copies of to you, which you may want to send outleting them know the process is going forward and there will be a public hearing.
we value those materials for you and would askfo tor the court's feed back.
I'll see if ms. Jackson has any comments to make.
>> I don't.
I'm just interested in feedback.
thank you for all of you who have taken time to talk to me and give me your feedback prior to this meeting.
>> we still think that the draft map will be provided to the court on June 16?
>> we actually are hoping to have a map for members of the court to look at before then, get any feedback they have, and then have a second ma'am which would be the draft map to be published.
so we're hoping there's actually a chance for y'all to look at a map, make comments you have, fine tune the map if possible, then have that map be the one that you put out to the public.
we hope to do all that by the middle or end of next week.
>> two things.
>> I didn't know we were that close.
if we are, fine.
we're looking at the court discussing that map prior to the June 27 public hearing.
right?
>> yes.
we're looking at the court looking at that map at the June 21 voting session of the court.
but what we're hoping is that individual members of the court would have a chance to visit again with the redistricting consultants between now and when we release that draft map.
>> I was hoping for a quick reality check.
we still think we can meet the June 15 and 16 timetable here.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> these are just drafts, right?
backup documents.
>> yes.
>> I know we spoke yesterday and made change the location.
>> yes, they are.
they don't reflect that change.
>> any other questions or comments?
>> judge, I guess as far as the average, are we going to post hearing, I guess, on chart 17, Travis County television, this particular, if the court decides to approve this schedule here today, on the time lines, do we intend to post this on channel 17?
Travis County television?
>> yes, sir, as well as have a page on the Travis County website for information about the redistricting process.
both of those things.
>> okay, so the whole nine yards everything.
>> the whole nine yards, yes, sir.
>> all right.
and again, I guess we just need to be, I guess, expedient as much as possible, but also ensuring that we are gathering these particular drafts maps that we need to look at before we end up going forward.
so we just still have a lot of work to be done.
>> yes, sir.
>> and I have no problem with that.
now, we have also been able to provide outreach persons with w lot w of info will be able to exhaust as much opportunity to the residents in the county to ensure that we maximize as much participation as we possibly can in this process.
so I just want to make sure that we are on top of this as much as possible.
I'm concerned.
>> yes, sir.
>> as I should be, but not to the extent, not to hold this up from what we need to do.
I think having something in writing in our schedule to follow is a sure path of getting things accomplished and getting things done.
so I would like to move forward.
I have no questions about it except to the fact all the context that are deemed necessary, especially on the June 27 through 30 public hearing, do as much as we possibly can to make sure that we have maximum participation in those public hearings.
that is a big deal.
>> as you know, Commissioner, one of the, probably the most important single strategy we in that regard is the outreach that each of your offices is going to make or we're going to make through your offices to the lists of your constituents whom you have been working with, meeting with over time, and those are the people who are going to be most interested in the quality of the representation.
we are very appreciatetive to your office and the other offices for giving us the information we need in order to be able to do that outreach.
>> I think what also may be necessary in that outreach attempt is to, as we always try to do when we send something out to the public, we tell them to, the person that received the notices on what is going on, to notify somebody else.
talk to somebody else.
I think it's very important to emphasize that.
so it will be far reaching than just the person that received it.
neighborhood association, you tell the rest of the people in the neighborhood association meeting, stuff like that.
>> sure.
>> I think outreach needs to be exhausted where you touch as many folks as possible.
so I would encourage that to be done, to note, to remind persons in your correspondence to reach out to otherss respecting the public hearing session.
>> dietz, will we have a basically rolling agenda item for this for the next couple of weeks in case there are things that need to be discussed at the full court?
>> I was planning to you this back on the agenda for the 21st for the court to look at and approve a map for a public comment.
do you want something on the agenda for next week as well?
>> I was just wondering.
might be something to consider if we go ahead and approve these drafts today with the changes that Commissioner Huber made yesterday and the comment that Commissioner Davis made with regard to the most e robust outreach.
the schedule and the draft.
I believe the drafts need to be approved because cording to the schedule we are releasing the press release today.
>> yes.
>> we need to go ahead and approve the draft language.
>> the draft notice, yes.
>> right.
>> I have no problem with that.
only to the effect if we send a notice out, I would like to, for it to include another extension of that outreach, which means tell somebody else about the put in hearing.
>> right.
pass the word.
>> pass the word.
>> they go to church and may go to the neighborhood association, may need to go to an individual.
you need to tell somebody else about the put in hearing.
I think that may be need to be included in the notice to expand that, extend that invitation to others.
>> I was thinking as we move forward with this, it might be productive to have a standing agenda item in case something bubbles up about a good idea as far as getting the word out that can be put out there.
I would move approval of the draft language with Commissioner Huber's changes and Commissioner 's suggestion--davis's suggestion.
>> I second that.
>> to clarify my change, which I didn't state, was to move the location to a more centrally location.
I don't know if the west service center is available but they are checking on that.
>> yes.
>> okay.
>> I'm looking at several pages here.
the motion is to approve all of them.
>> yes.
>> with the minor changes that have been mentioned.
>> yes, sir.
>> there's a second that covers that.
>> yes, judge.
>> what about b here, the justice of the peace and con precincts--constable precincts?
>> we have encourage the justice of the peace and constables if they wish to discuss the districts or anne changes this e would like to directly contact the consultants.
think so far the consultants have only heard from one of those predominant--those people.
our plan is to get a Commissioners map out to y'all first and then to get, in ongoings conversations with the jp's and constables, fashion a map that we would present on July 5.
>> the motion doesn't consider jp's and constables.
>> the timetable you have adopted would follow that process.
there is not a specific map at this point for jp's and constables.
>> the jp's and constables, if they don't know already they will be notified immediately of the time table if the motion passs.
>> yes.
>> anymore discussion on the motion?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
anything else regarding 21?
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