Community Issue:
Geographic Representation
With the November 6, 2012 election, the voters of Austin approved an amendment to the City Charter to adopt geographic representation. Beginning with the November 2014 election the City Council will have 10 members elected from single-member districts and a mayor elected from the city at-large. An Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC) will be formed to draw the boundaries of the single-member districts. The ordinance provides complete details of the Proposition 3 charter amendment.
If you are interested in making history in the drawing of the first geographic boundaries for this new 10-1 model for our government, consider applying to serve on the Applicant Review Panel or the ICRC. Review a summary of the qualifications for serving on the ICRC, as developed by Austinites for Geographic Representation.
The Austin City Auditor, who is reponsible for establishing the application process, has set up a 10–ONE website to provide up-to-date details about the districting process.
The City Auditor also is hosting a public forum to identify ways to encourage participation in the Citizens Redistricting process, which will take place on December 4th, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at One Texas Center (505 Barton Springs Road), Room 325.
ANC History on District Representation
At the 26 October 2011 general meeting the ANC membership deliberated and voted to endorse a 10-0-1 plan for district representation, a redistricting process based on an independent citizens commission, and to retain May as the month for election of City Council members. President Steven Aleman presented the ANC position in a letter to the 2012 Charter Revision Committee.
ANC representatives have developed two variations of a 10-1 district. This summary was presented to the Charter Revision Committee on 5 January 2012.
map, data summary, and data for 10-1 option A
map, data summary, and data for 10-1 option B
At the 25 January 2012 ANC general membership meeting, Lorraine Atherton distributed a history of SMD elections and voter turnout.
Background Information
The ANC membership has had extensive interest and discussion of single-member districting for several years. At the January
2008 general meeting a majority of members present voted in
favor of the following resolution:
"ANC-East
requests that the Austin Neighborhoods Council support the
restructuring of the City Council, to include at-large and
district representation with the majority of the Council made up
of district representatives."
Relevant documents considered in the 2008 re-districting discussion included:
City of Austin Charter Amendment
ANC revision of Charter Amendment
Case for Single-Member Districts
History of Representative Government in Austin by David Van Os
With the current discussion of geographic representations the ANC members also reviewed scenarios for 6 districts, 8 districts, and 10-2-1 district structures, as described below.
6 District Proposals:
The City of Austin Districting 2011 page provides the associated City Council resolutions, census data, and variations of a 6-district proposal. The ANC developed this alternate 6-district map based upon corresponding census data.
8 District Proposals:
8-4-1-1MD map, 8-4-1-2MD map, and census data for an 8 District model as presented at the July 2011 ANC general meeting.
10-2-1 District Proposals:
10-2-1 Map A and census data for a 10-2-1 District model.
10-2-1 Map B and census data for a 10-2-1 District model.
At the September 2011 ANC general meeting a draft Resolution was presented regarding the proposed charter revisions.
The general ANC position on Single-District Representation was presented to the Charter Revision Committee at its 15 Sept 2011 meeting. |
