Community Issue:
Revisions to the Austin City Charter
The Austin City Council has proposed several revisions to the City Charter that it expects to present to voters in November 2012. The Council established a 2012 Charter Revision Committee to recommend the charter language and maps that meet the geographic districting requirements set forth by the City Council. Information about the Charter Revision Committee members and their meetings is posted at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityclerk/boards_commissions/boards/bid74.htm.
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. |
