Despite no legal requirement to do so, the Sarasota County Commissioners have been seriously considering performing a redistricting of their 5 districts in advance of the 2020 election. This has raised concern among advocates for Single District Voting -- a measure passed by voters of both parties in all districts last November. Seeing no reason to redistrict, some fear this will enable the Board to select its voters in order to help assure the reelection of its members running in 2020. Sarasota's Board has not had a non-Republican on it in 50 years.
Pat Rounds, a citizen advocate, has sought answers to certain questions raised by this potential maneuver - to no avail. Below is Rounds' email effort to get some answers to questions.
To date, the exchange has been rather one-sided:
Pat Rounds, a citizen advocate, has sought answers to certain questions raised by this potential maneuver - to no avail. Below is Rounds' email effort to get some answers to questions.
To date, the exchange has been rather one-sided:
To the Sarasota County Commission and County Administrators:
In May (as requested by the County Commission), County staff compiled and presented a comprehensive research report at a BoCC meeting assessing the potential need to redistrict before the 2020 Census. See attached (Redistricting--County Staff Research May 2019).
This County staff report contains criteria identified by the Supreme Court to determine population differences which would justify a redistricting exercise. The Supreme Court stated that "generally the maximum population deviation between the largest and smallest district should be less than 10% to presumably comply with the one person, one vote rule." Couple this formula with the ESRI/District population table currently posted on the County Commission page at scgov.net . See attached. The same ESRI GIS table (2018-2023) was recently sent to the County Commission by Jonathan Lewis, County Administrator.
When applying the Supreme Court criteria to the ESRI-derived District population figures (below), the 10% maximum deviation threshold is not achieved. The population difference between the largest (D5) and smallest (D2) Districts is 7,610 people--under 10%. No support for redistricting.
Dist 1-Moran 81,106Dist 2-Ziegler 79,915Dist 3-Detert 87,130Dist 4-Maio 80,685Dist 5-Hines 87,525
Apparently not satisfied with County research and findings, the Sarasota County Commission is moving forward anyway. The Commission is now searching for an outside expert to lead this exercise and achieve the desired outcome--But at what cost to taxpayers and voter trust?
On repeated occasions, the County Commission has committed to conducting a public, transparent and inclusive process. Please demonstrate Sarasota County's commitment to full disclosure, and respond to the following public information requests:
- What is the timeline for this redistricting process?
- What are the criteria for selecting an outside expert/s to facilitate this redistricting exercise?
- Will a candidate/contractor search be conducted according to County guidelines? Please describe the recruitment and selection process.
- Has an expert been selected? If so, please identify your choice/s and the qualifications that justified the selection.
- Outline the responsibilities of the outside expert/s (e.g., process steps, methodology and disclosure of results).
- What is the cost of hiring an outside expert to conduct this research?
- What data source/s will be used to determine the current county-wide and district-level population? How much will it cost to compile this data--- as Sarasota County has used ESRI in the past to calculate population estimates.
- Please outline the criteria used to determine accurate population figures.
- What methodology will be used?
- What data sets will be compiled to assess current county-level population by District?
Thank you in advance for your timely response to this request.
Pat Rounds
Sarasota, 34235
District One
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After receiving no response, Rounds submitted her questions to Donn S. Patchen, head of county communications, in June. She is still waiting for a complete response.
Mr. Patchen,
This information request was submitted ten days ago and should require little, if any research. The original email is below this message.
There has been no official acknowledgement of the initial request (including from the Commissioner for District One). Is this typical?
The County Commission has committed to conducting a public, transparent and inclusive redistricting process. The information requested is pertinent to understanding how this exercise is being implemented. Please demonstrate Sarasota County's promise of full disclosure, and respond to the following public information requests:
- What is the timeline for this redistricting process?
- What are the criteria for selecting an outside expert/s to facilitate this redistricting exercise?
- Will a candidate/contractor search be conducted according to County guidelines? Please describe the recruitment and selection process.
- Has an expert been selected? If so, please identify your choice/s and the qualifications that justified the selection.
- Outline the responsibilities of the outside expert/s (e.g., process steps, methodology and disclosure of results).
- What is the cost of hiring an outside expert to conduct this research?
- What data source/s will be used to determine the current county-wide and district-level population? How much will it cost to compile this data--- as Sarasota County has used ESRI in the past to calculate population estimates.
- Please outline the criteria used to determine accurate population figures.
- What methodology will be used?
- What data sets will be compiled to assess current county-level population by District?
Thank you.
Pat Rounds
District One
Listen online or on the air at WKDW 97.5 FM radio for a hard-hitting program with North Port City Commissioner Jill Luke and Gabriel Hament on the proposed 2019 Sarasota County redistricting—and more!
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