FULL STORY: City districts will be redrawn

For the first time since the city of Sarasota created its three City Commission election districts in 1985, those boundaries will be redrawn.

At Monday’s Sarasota City Commission regular meeting, city attorney Robert Fournier said that the districts need to be redrawn by April because of recent U.S. Census figures.

“As a result of the 2010 census, we have a situation where we are forced to redraw district boundary lines because our charter states the most-populated district and the least-populated district can’t have a wide gap of city residents between them,” Fournier said.

District 3, which contains the majority of Southeast Sarasota, now has 13% more residents than District 1, which contains the majority of the city’s northern residents.

A gap of more than 10% between districts, Fournier said, is unacceptable in a court of law because it violates the “one person, one vote” standard.

In a Nov. 10 memo to the commission, Fournier explained the concept.

“The concept of ‘one person, one vote’ means that representative districts should be roughly the same size in population, so that each voter’s vote will count roughly on equal terms in the selection of each district representative,” said Fournier in the memo.

Fournier points out, however, that the new district lines should not be drawn in such a way that would split the city’s African-American community.

“Drawing district lines in this manner would very likely violate the Voting Rights Act as an action deliberately intended to dilute African-American voting strength,” wrote Fournier in his memo.

Fournier reiterated that statement again at Monday’s meeting to assuage District 1 Commissioner Willie Shaw’s concerns.

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Shaw said.

The city’s charter mandates that the redistricting must take place within a year of the release of the population figures. So, even though the city has no district elections until 2015, the city will prepare new district lines for the commission to review in March.

Commissioner Shannon Snyder warned city staff to take into consideration the city’s future when preparing its new boundaries.

“We need to look 10 years out,” Snyder said. “Both District 1 and District 3 will gain more because there is land in both districts to be developed.”

DISTRICT FIGURES
New U.S. Census figures, based
on the population in 2010, show:
• District 1 contains 16,171 residents
• District 2 contains 17,294 residents
• District 3 contains 18,453 residents