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Volusia
County Redistricting Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 25, 2001
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The Volusia County Redistricting Committee met at 5:30 p.m. on June 25, 2001 in the Training Rooms at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center, 123 West Indiana Avenue, DeLand, Volusia County, Florida. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss redistricting in accordance with Volusia County’s Home Rule Charter and the 2000 Census.
Public Notice of this workshop was given in The News-Journal.
The following Committee Members were present: Committee Chair Patricia Northey, County Council Member; Committee Vice Chair John, County Council Member; Judith Conte, Volusia County School Board; Blanca Hernandez Volusia County Hispanic Association; Earl McCrary, Volusia County School Board; Cynthia Slater (Had to Leave), NAACP; Ann H. Smith, League of Woman’s Voters
The following Volusia County staff members were present: Mark Conway, GIS; Dan Eckert, County Attorney; Barbara Griffiths, GIS Project Leader; Betty Holness, Assistant to the County Manager; Deanie Lowe, Supervisor of Elections; Diane Marinaro Tyler, Administrative Aide for the County Manager’s Office; Elaine Whitehead, Information Technology Director
Members of the public and press were present.
- Call to Order
Committee Chair Pat Northey called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. and delivered some opening remarks.
- Approval of Committee Meeting and Listening Session Minutes
Committee Member Conte moved for APPROVAL of the Committee and Listening Session minutes as written and after Committee Member McCrary seconded the motion the minutes were duly ADOPTED.
Ms. Deanie Lowe explained that it is very confusing to poll workers and voters when there are multiple styles of ballots at one polling place. She said that she attended a conference for elections supervisors and one of the supervisors suggested adoption of a resolution that would allow council/commission members to re-evaluate and make minimal adjustments to district lines in 2003 after the State and Federal legislators have drawn their district lines. Ms. Lowe said that sometimes the slight shift of a line would resolve these serious issues.
Ms. Sandy Peloquin, Supervisor of Voter Registration, presented an overlay map showing how splits occur after the State and Federal district lines are drawn. She presented an example where there were three houses split from their groups. Ms. Peloquin said that the elections department has to purchase 50 ballots at a time even for three voters. She further stated that if only a couple of people are voting in a precinct, their votes would not be secret. She said that there are 40 split precincts and that most splits could not be easily corrected.
Mr. Dan Eckert, County Attorney, said that district lines are adopted by ordinance and Council would have to amend the ordinance to adjust the line. He further stated that the School Board would also have to address this issue.
Ms. Lowe said that she needs help crafting the language that would allow a future Council to move the line.
Ms. Conte asked if law permits district lines to be administratively moved or if it would re-open the entire discussion regarding district lines.
Mr. Eckert said that statute requires that the district lines be completed this year.
Chair Northey said that the lines could be adjusted once to compensate for the splits that would result from State and Federal district lines.
- Overview of the Listening Sessions
Chair Northey explained there were six listening sessions, one in each district and two in District 2 (School Board District 3). She said that additional maps resulted from the sessions. Chair Northey said that the sample maps were presented to the County Council on Thursday and three more maps resulted. She said that Council members indicated preferences to sample maps 1A and 7A, which depict district lines similar to current lines. She said that Council agreed that Daytona Beach, east of Holly Hill was an issue and the district should be adjusted to include this area due to political affiliation.
Ms. Barbara Griffiths reviewed the additional maps as follows:
Sample 1B
This sample is a revision of Sample 1A that puts the northeast peninsula area of Daytona Beach into District 3/2. District 2/3 moves north and District 3/2 moves east. It has the target population at less than 1 percent deviation. Port Orange, Daytona Beach and Samsula-Spruce Creek CDP are split between 2 districts.
It meets the following goals set by the 2000 Redistricting Committee:
- New district boundaries do not place residences of the existing School Board or County Council members outside their district.
- No two-district members are placed within the same district.
- Concentrated minority populations are left intact.
Sample 7B
Sample 7B is a revision of Sample 7A that puts the northeast peninsula area of Daytona Beach into District 3/2. Orange City is not split. It has a target population of less than 1 percent deviation. Port Orange, Daytona Beach, and DeLand are split between 2 districts. Samsula-Spruce Creek is split at SR 415.
It addresses issues discussed at the listening sessions as follows:
Southeast Volusia County (District 2/3) extends to SR 415. Those unincorporated subdivisions west of Ormond Beach are included with District 4. DeBary and Deltona are in separate districts. Pierson and DeLeon Springs are in one district. Deltona and Osteen are kept together in District 5. It meets the following goals set by the 2000 Redistricting Committee:
- New district boundaries do not place residences of the existing School Board or County Council members outside their district.
- No two-district members are placed within the same district.
- Concentrated minority populations are left intact.
Sample 7C
Sample 7C is also a revision of Sample 7A that puts the northeast peninsula area of Daytona Beach into District 3/2. Lake Helen is moved to District 1. Orange City is not split. Port Orange, Daytona Beach, and DeLand are split between 2 districts. Samsula-Spruce Creek is split at SR 415. DeBary is split along Highbanks Road. Sample 7C has a target population of less than 1 percent deviation.
It addresses issues discussed at the listening sessions as follows:
Southeast Volusia County (District 2/3) extends to SR 415. Those unincorporated subdivisions west of Ormond Beach are included with District 4. Part of DeBary and Deltona are in separate districts. Pierson and DeLeon Springs are in one district. Deltona and Osteen are kept together in District 5. It meets the following goals set by the 2000 Redistricting Committee:
- New district boundaries do not place residences of the existing School Board or County Council members outside their district.
- No two-district members are placed within the same district.
- Concentrated minority populations are left intact.
Committee Discussions
Chair Northey explained that she would be out of town and would not be able to attend the School Board meeting tomorrow when the redistricting maps would be presented but that Ms. Griffiths and Ms. Holness would attend.
Discussion ensued regarding bridging the lines between the east/west mentality.
Committee Member Smith asked if Mr. Eckert could prepare language to accomplish Ms. Lowe’s request by the meeting on July 11th.
Mr. Eckert said that re-addressing district lines in an open-ended fashion could be problematic. He said that there must be criteria for adjustments explaining what would be an acceptable alteration.
Chair Northey said that less than 50 voters would be an acceptable alteration.
Ms. Griffiths said that staff would have to go back along lines after the final decision is made to be sure no houses are split and that perhaps some of Ms. Lowe’s concerns could be resolved at that point.
- Public Participation
Mr. John Nicholson said that attempts at unifying east and west does not work. He said that it was attempted in Daytona Beach and failed. He said that he does not recommend a linear split. Mr. Epson said that districts that run east and west would end up with four districts elected from east side and only one from west side. He further stated that Daytona Beach should not split since would shrink eventually anyway. Mr. Epson said that the Cities of DeBary and Deltona should be kept together in the same district as they have westward interest in common and that the South Halifax area should be kept together. He said that he prefers the Port Orange map.
City of Deltona Commissioner Runge, said that he speaks for the City of Deltona and that DeBary and Deltona should be in separate districts. He said that he is comfortable with Sample Maps 7A and 7B but not with Sample 7C.
Mr. Jim Cameron, Halifax Chamber of Commerce, said that he prefers Sample 1B and likes the districts kept in tact. He also stated that he would like the beachside community from Ponce Inlet north to the Daytona Beach/Ormond Beach line kept in tact. He said that Volusia County seems to have evolved into a four-section county rather than just east/west.
Committee Member Conte said that Sample 4 would allow for 2˝ districts on each side of the County.
Commissioner Runge said that Sample 4 would be acceptable.
- Set Next Meeting Date
Wednesday, July 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Training Rooms at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center, 123 West Indiana Avenue, DeLand, Volusia County, Florida.
Tuesday, July 31, 6:00 p.m. – Location to be determined.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.
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