Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 46
Why don't we call up 46.
46, consider and take appropriate action on the following: a, redistricting plans for the following Travis County precincts, 1, county Commissioners, 2, justices of the peace and constables, 3, elections, voter tabulation districts, or vtds, and b, pre-clearance submission and/or supplement to the united states department of justice.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, members of the court.
I'll be very brief.
as the members of the court know we're not ready to go on the vtd districts.
there may be when we come back to the court hopefully next week, there may be a few more of these instances we've found now where if we're going to smooth out an existing voting precinct boundary and conformity, we may have to once again come back to you and ask y'all if we can move a few people from one j.p.
precinct to another or even from one Commissioners court precinct to another.
we've got one place we've identified where there's 11 people that may have to move.
so we plan to come back to the court with that next week.
in the meantime, I do want to brief you about what's going on with the litigation involving the districts that have already been drawn by the legislature.
as I'm sure members of the court know, last week the department of justice pre-cleared the state board of education and the state senate lines that had been drawn by the legislature.
however, they refused to pre-clear the congressional district lines or the legislative district lines.
they have identified the specific legislative or congressional districts that they are concerned about and although their concerns do not directly affect any of the districts drawn that include Travis County, it may be that as the court orders changes to the districts -- first of all, it may be the department of justice in trying to ask a court to draw maps to address its concerns may make -- may ask the courts to make changes that would affect Travis County.
number 2, although the department of justice has expressed what its specific objections are, there is still room for the courts, particularly the court in a san antonio, to say they have broader objections than the ones expressed by the department of justice.
so we're proceeding forward with making the map on the assumption the lines are the lines drawn by the legislature, but it would be wise for the court to remember that there is litigation about that and that there is at least a chance that that litigation will succeed given the objections raised by the department of justice.
that's just an update to the court.
the other issue that has come up and several questions and I wanted to get some direction on, we've had a number of people have asked us -- the court has adopted boundaries, they have sent those boundaries off to department of justice for pre-clearance.
are they in effect now.
for electoral purposes they only take effect for next year, they are bound recognize for next year, but all of you on a daily basis deal with constituents so the issue is coming up are my old constituents, the ones I had, I'm still dealing with them or am I handing those off so that other Commissioners who maybe now have those people in their district.
so that's a question and just as a practical example, the steiner ranch property that was the locale for a fire a couple weeks ago was in Commissioner Huber's precinct, precinct 3, but now is in Commissioner Eckhardt's precinct, precinct 2, under these new maps.
the questions coming up who are you going to call when you need assistance from your county Commissioner given the fact we have new maps adopted.
that's really a question of policy for the court, it's not really a legal question, it's just a matter of how you all among yourselves want to divvy up your work loads.
so I would appreciate any direction or discussion the court wants to do with respect to that.
>> I was just going to say the situation at steiner ranch given the disaster, I think we would throw all the resources we have behind it and I certainly intend to stay involved and would hope Commissioner Eckhardt would want to be involved in dealing with that disaster issue.
>> I would like -- I absolutely 100% agree and during this transition I think that we will -- we will all have to double up some and work with constituents who -- who were ours as well as constituents who are ours in order to work that transition through to the next election cycle.
but I do think for clarity with regard to staff, we have subdivision plats that come up, we have park issues, we have road issues, we have law enforcement issues.
I think it would be -- it would certainly alleviate my office staff to be able to know specifically which constituents are -- are ours and be able to -- to all speak in the same -- sing from the same hymnal, as it were.
so what do you all think about directing staff to go ahead and utilize the boundaries that we adopted on September 13th with regard to our day to day activities?
officially, although I completely agree that from a policy standpoint I would very much like to continue working with, for instance, citizens of Pflugerville in the handoff to Commissioner Davis and with the citizens of steiner ranch in the handoff from Commissioner Huber as well as other areas.
>> my idea is that the court has taken final action on the lines.
so our actions ought to be consistent with them.
to the extent we can collaborate, I'm for that too.
so we made a final decision much unless the justice department tells us we have not.
>> so do you -- do you think that there needs to be any direction to staff at all at this point or should we just say we voted September 13th to move the lines.
>> I think we ought to give staff the map and tell them the court has taken final action on it and those are the precincts.
>> so, for instance, a subdivision plat issue in Pflugerville which may have been handled through Commissioner Eckhardt's office or passed through Commissioner Eckhardt's office now would go to Commissioner Davis' office.
that would be an example of what we're talking about in terms of a practical matter in terms of how the county does its business.
>> but if a former Commissioner has been working on a project, the handoff requires hopefully a smooth transition.
I see two court members sort of working together to get those projects done.
I wouldn't think those would be numerous, would they?
>> there's a fair number of projects in the pipeline, but, you know, given the way the agendas come out, if for instance the rowe lane projects, if they go to Commissioner Davis' office for the actual agenda item to be signed, I'll see it on the agenda and be able to help to any extent Commissioner Davis' office requests it.
so --
>> there's no doubt that we're going to need each other's assistance in this transition, no doubt in my mind.
and I'm quite sure Commissioner Eckhardt is a lot more familiar with some of the projects she dealt with directly in her particular precinct over the years.
and, of course, that knowledge that she has, I hope she translates that to me and, of course, the same thing holds true for me.
those relationships and the things that happened in the transition period can do the same.
the bottom line is we do not have a void from offering the type of services to the community during this transition period.
that's the bottom line.
because they are the ones that receive the attention from Travis County.
and I have no -- no problems with that and I hope no one else has trouble with that type of transitional behavior.
I think that we'll need to embrace as we go through this process.
and, of course, I -- again, I have no problem with it.
>> it just seemed that the staff might could profit by having some clarity as to the procedure.
there's another issue that I see coming as far as certain precinct related appointments.
for instance, the emergency service districts, if we are going to stand on the lines that we adopted September 13th, we do have some appointments that will come up in that that will -- if we -- if we go with our September 13th vote as effective from that moment forward, that will change some of our appointments.
>> I think on those appointments we address those in January anyway, I would just wait.
>> I mean some of the appointments with regard to, like, for instance, emergency service district's Commissioners on the boards of the esds which sometimes they roll off and we need to put new folks on.
and esd 2, I only have a small portion of esd 2 at this point.
>> when they roll off, I would address them.
but we have such a fine and outstanding working relationship here at Travis County that this will be -- this will be the smoothest transition imaginable.
I just hate that I don't have a part of the county to work with rather than old parts so I could participate, but I stand ready to assist in whatever way I can.
>> may I ask another question?
and perhaps this would require an agenda item later, but with regard to the emergency service districts, we -- we might want to take a look at the proportional active issue in society of those districts because many have been petitioned by redistricting.
for instance, on esd 2, last year Commissioner Davis and I went to recognition that about one-fifth of esd was in precinct 1.
now we should change it to another distribution since the -- since it's flipped.
now I have a very small portion of esd 2.
so it would be good to get clarification on how much -- how much each within of us is appointing in each one of the esds.
>> if we asked our lawyers, they would tell us that we require an agenda item.
>> yes, on that item.
>> and we are working the boards and appointments policy as we speak, so we'll be bring that pretty soon.
for you to consider.
>> and judge, I guess from a standpoint and I agree with you as far as the map distribution to staff to let them know the new alignments, the new boundaries, and govern themselves accordingly when it comes to the distribution of the workload that we encounter, and it's a share thing anyway, and so I would agree with that as far as distributing the map.
and I guess my question, though, judge, is when would you think that would be appropriate to distribute the new redistricting map to county staff?
>> last week.
>> last week?
okay.
>> as soon as possible.
I think the managers are probably aware of most of the changes.
>> yeah, they are, to some degree.
>> the latest maps adopted by the court have been up on the county website for two weeks.
>> and unless there is a contrary opinion, what we can do is just go ahead and make sure all the managers know that.
>> yes.
>> and we can cover that at the agenda setting meeting tomorrow at 1:30, and if any court member, any one of the court member wants to come, that's fine.
two more plus me would not be legal.
anything else on this item?
>> that's it, judge.
>> court members, anything else?
okay.
thank you very much.
should I have all of it back on next week or just --
>> yes.
>> all right.
will do.
a couple quick items before we get to 34.
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