My comments to the TCRC on October 22nd
Last night, 40+ citizens made public comments to the Temporary County Redistricting Commission during the public hearing on Plan G. The Gazette published a story about the meeting in today's paper and WMT Radio interviewed me this morning.
My comments and the speakers' written comments and documentation are available to the public. To obtain copies of the comments, please contact the Board of Supervisors' Office at 892-5000.
Note: Please excuse the informality of my writing. The text below was originally only for my speech and not for publication; however, the Commission requested a copy so I am making it available on my blog, too.
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Dear Commission:
Tonight, I come before you to give you 3 perspectives on Plan G.
My 1st perspective emanates from being the Linn County Auditor & Commissioner of Elections. On May 30th, my GIS/Mapping staff prepared Scenarios A, B, C, and D. This was well before the July 24th election and prior to the Commission before formed. The purpose of creating the scenarios was to ensure that 5 districts could be formed without the need to divide precincts – we have 86 precincts in Linn County and I was certain many scenarios could be created without dividing any precincts.
These scenarios – maps – were prepared without any consideration for the incumbent supervisors or any potential candidates. In fact, until *** Hogan from the Gazette asked for the candidate precinct information on the incumbents and candidates, I did not know for certain and my staff did not know for certain which incumbent or candidate resided in which precinct.
Scenarios A, B, C, and D were created as objectively as possible by my staff without direction from me EXCEPT for complying with the statutes and promulgated rules of the State of Iowa.
My 2nd perspective emanates from being the Mayor of Robins. At the last meeting of the Commission, various Commissioners stated that Robins should be in the same district as Marion because we had much in common with Marion.
At the same time, I heard various Commissioners indicate that Mount Vernon did not have much in common with Marion. And I heard Assistant County Attorney Jarvis indicate the process of redistricting was more than just a mathematical formula, i.e., the Commission could consider information not prohibited by the Iowa Code, e.g., they could consider the trade area between 2 cities, but they could not consider the addresses of the incumbents.
Under this pretext, I offer the following information relative to the City of Robins:
1. Robins receives all of its water and sanitary sewer services from Cedar Rapids. CR has no precincts in the same district as Robins under Plan G, but did under Plan D.
2. Robins has 28E annexation agreements with Hiawatha and Cedar Rapids, but no annexation agreement with Marion. Hiawatha has no precincts in the same district as Robins under Plan G, but did under Plan D.
3. Robins and Hiawatha share major arterial roads with Hiawatha, i.e., Center Point Road and Tower Terrace Road. And CR shares Council ST, which becomes Mentzer Road with Robins.
4. I don’t have hard data to prove it, but I’m guessing the majority of people living in Robins a> work in Cedar Rapids and b> shop in Cedar Rapids.
5. Within the last 2 weeks, Robins annexed 500+ acres of land in Monroe Township. Monroe was in the same district as Robins under Plan D, but is not under Plan G.
6. Robins has a 28E agreement with Alburnett to share building inspection services and Alburnett is contained within Otter Creek Township. Under Plan G, Alburnett is in a different district than Robins. Under Plan D, its in the same district as Robins.
7. Robins is the 3rd largest city in Linn County based upon land area. Robins is the 5th largest city based upon population, i.e., we’re behind CR, Marion, and Hiawatha, but catching up to Mount Vernon.
If you’re going to base decisions on relationships between cities, I want you to at least understand the relationship that Robins has with its immediate neighbors versus our relationship with Marion. Plan D complemented our relationships with our neighbors; Plan G does not.
Finally, my 3rd perspective emanates from being the former chair of the Linn County Democratic Party and a democratic party activist.
There are 8 partisan county-wide elected officials in Linn County. Each is a Democrat. There are 11 state legislators representing Linn County – 9 of the 11 are Democrats.
As of last week, there are 139K registered voters in Linn County. Of those 139K, 46K are Dems, 36K are Reps, and 57K are NPs. I have yet to hear a single local, state, or national political pundit indicate that 2008 is NOT going to be a banner year for Democrats.
If you select Plan G, you are handing our opponents a campaign issue that didn’t exist under Plan D. I have to ask: Why?
### --Joel @ 1:10pm