"An offense to all voters" - Lobeck on Sarasota County redistricting

Update: Gerrymandering/racist charges likely to come in December

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Sarasota Herald Tribune
GUEST EDITORIAL

Not just lines on a map

"As long as he’s a citizen of Sarasota County he’s entitled to submit a map" to redraw the County Commission election districts. — County Commissioner Nancy Detert

Well, Robert Waechter is not just any citizen. And his map, to be voted on by the commission Tuesday, is not just any map.

Mr. Waechter is a convicted criminal, found guilty of fraud for stealing the identity of a Republican opposing the election of Alan Maio to the county commission, to discredit her in the primary by donating in her name to Democrats.

And that was only one incident, linked to a political machine of development interests who hand-pick candidates for local offices and bankroll them to election. I call them the Cabal.

The Cabal was appalled when their big-money domination of commission elections became threatened by 60% voter approval of singlemember districts, despite the Cabal’s expensive and deceptive opposition. Now it takes one-fifth as much money for a candidate to get out a message and neighborhoods are more empowered.

So no surprise when the commission decided to redistrict early, before reliable numbers from the 2020 census, and conduct next year’s election for three commission seats under a new map.

Bob Waechter’s map was submitted under the name of Adam Smith, to hide its source. When Herald Tribune reporter Zac Anderson tracked email addresses to pin the map on Waechter, he at first denied that the map was his.

The Waechter map does two things.

First, it protects incumbent County Commissioner Mike Moran from Democratic voters (who now form a majority in his district) by carving African American neighborhoods out of District 1 and denying them a vote until 2022 (before which I predict the commission will seek to repeal single-member districts).

The second impact is an offense to all voters, including Republicans like me. The Waechter map would carve out of Moran’s district every likely opponent to his reelection, in both parties.

This includes former Sarasota Mayor Fredd Atkins, who has declared, as well as New College professor Frank Alcock, who has expressed a strong interest, and potential candidate Hagen Brody, a Sarasota City Commissioner. All are Democrats.

Also, the Waechter map, in redrawing Moran’s district, curiously jags to the north in the eastern county to carve out Myakka Valley Ranches. Thathappens to be the home of Frank DiCicco, who gave Moran a run for his big money in the 2016 Republican primary despite entering the race at the last minute.

This same thing happens in the district of Nancy Detert. At present, she faces a challenge from outgoing North Port Mayor Chris Hanks. The Waechter map carves North Port out into a separate district, and puts Detert into the Venice district, which is up for election but has no incumbent due to Commissioner Charles Hines being term-limited.

That way, Detert is free of Hanks’ challenge and the Cabal gets a shot at electing Hanks if they choose to anoint him.

On Oct. 30, Commissioners Moran, Detert and Maio prevailed on a 3-2 vote to put the Waechter map before a public hearing on Tuesday, together with an alternative by a consultant which merely moves a large Republican precinct into District 1.

While any redistricting should await the 2020 census, the fact that the Waechter map is even being considered is scandalous. If it is approved it will be a scandal beyond compare.

Dan Lobeck is a Sarasota attorney and president of Control Growth Now.

Redistricting Sleight of Maps - with pumpkins

The Board of Sarasota County Commissioners overrode the public input against redistricting today, Oct. 30, and voted 3-2 to proceed with advertising two maps for final redistricting consideration (Maps 2-A.1 and 4-A.1) Opposing the motion were Hines and Ziegler.

(At the Board redistricting meeting of Oct. 30, the Board accepted public input, but limited speakers to 3 minutes (normally people have 5). My talk was truncated thanks to the time crunch - here it is in full, with pumpkins - TM)

At the Board’s last public discussion, some expressed a preference for straight lines instead of wiggly lines. This is a common notion of what fair redistricting is supposed to look like. Straight lines offer the appearance of neutrality with regard to political, social, and economic conditions.

There’s more to appearances than just straight lines, however.

The maps in your packet today offer a variety of solutions to the balancing of district populations.

You have 7 maps - four earlier maps, and three maps newly adjusted to better balance the population.

There’s Map 1-A,

   and

Map 2-A and 2-A.1

Map 3-A and 3-A.1

Map 4-A and 4-A.1

The only map that doesn’t have an updated alternative is Map 1-A.

As it happens, 1-A is the only map that doesn’t move Precinct 233, where I and thousands of other people live, from District 2 to District 1.

And as it happens, of all the District 2 precincts that could be moved into District 1, #233 has more registered republicans than any other -- 3,951.

It also has the largest total population of registered voters: 8,225 (including 2,000 independents, 2274 Democrats)

If one wanted to help a Republican candidate win District 1 in 2020, moving Pct. #233 to that district would be the strongest choice.

In short, while avoiding the appearance of finagling with wiggly lines at the micro level, 6 of the 7 maps pluck Pct. 233 wholesale from District 2 and drop it into District 1. The appearance of cherry picking has moved from the micro to the macro level. Instead of wiggly lines and cherry-picking, it’s one mighty big pumpkin being transplanted, with straight lines.

The second curious thing about Map 1-A is that it’s not been updated to achieve smaller variances. Your consultant has updated the other 6 maps to balance their populations, but not Map 1-A.

In South County, the new modifications made to Maps 2-A.1 and 3-A.1 follow the boundary of the city of North Port, and don’t split the West Villages, where people objected to being split into two districts.

As it happens, the consultant could have adjusted Map 1-A the very same way. Doing so would both have respected the wishes of the West Villagers and achieved an equalized population on a par with, or better than, the other new maps. Let’s recall: Map 1-A is the only map that doesn’t move Pct. 233 into District 1.

Failure to update Map 1-A creates the unavoidable appearance of something other than pristine neutrality. Any of these three maps could have been disadvantaged by splitting North Port and the West Villages. But only Map 1, the one least favorable to the Republican Candidate for District 1, still has this disadvantage.

The Board could fix this: Simply direct the consultant to create a “Map 1-A.1” adopt the same lines in North Port as Maps 2-A.1 and 3-A.1. With that change, those who have intensively studied the maps say Map 1-A.1 would equalize population across districts better than all the rest.

If for no other reason than for the sake of appearances, the public deserves a clear explanation: Why was Map 1-A not afforded a balancing update along with all the others? 

Doing so potentially could reduce the appearance of partisan gerrymandering that now, like a ghostly orange pumpkin, haunts this process, regardless of all the nice straight lines.

Public Workshops on County Planning Updates

The senseless proposal for an industrial waste facility at the Celery Fields revealed some disturbing facts about  how planning has been failing the people of Sarasota County.

E.g., Sarasota's land use map is out of date, its multiple codes do not mesh, and County planners apparently are not required to consult the community, or notify anyone of major changes to, or sales of, public lands.

The County is working on updating - and will have public meetings beginning Sept. 20th. 

Lots of info and a survey here.

All three public "workshops" are in Nokomis:

Public Workshops

Location:

Nokomis Community Center, Main Hall

234 Nippino Trail 

Nokomis, FL 34275

Dates:

September 20th – Public Workshop No. 1
October 18th – Public Workshop No. 2
November 7th – Public Workshop No. 3

Time:
6:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as possible.

Tale of Two Maps: Citizens produce counter-plan

A citizens' map for Alachua

This posting on Facebook tells of a county plan and an alternative proposed by the citizens of Alachua County, FL.

The maps:

Robert Karl Hutchinson with Richard Saxe at Alachua County Administration Building

Tale of Two Maps. The map to the left shows Plum Creek's proposed development and conservation areas contrasted with the map to the right which was prepared by a group of citizens and was presented by Jason Teisinger, Jack Putz, David Moritz,Dave Wilson, and Claudia Romero. The primary difference is the width of the buffer around Lochloosa Creek, and the connectivity provided to the North-South wildlife corridor. The acreage devoted to mixed use development is reduced from 11,396 acres to 6,522 acres, and the impact on wetlands is also halved. The proponents claim that their alternative meets the basic standards of the County's Comprehensive Plan with respect to acreages of development in strategic ecosystems, and other issues.

Since most people including me have a hard time relating to large acreages, I started measuring stuff, and here's what will fit onto 6500 acres: Downtown Gainesville from Waldo Road to 13th Street and N. 16th to S.16th Avenues PLUS all of the University of Florida campus to 34th Street including the Shands and VA hospitals PLUS all of Gainesville Regional Airport PLUS the entire North Florida Medical Center complex and the Oaks Mall PLUS Butler Plaza PLUS the proposed mega- developments of Springhills, Santa Fe Villages, Celebration Pointe, and Newberry Village, PLUS Haile Village and Tioga . . . and I'm pretty sure there's still land leftover for a proper croquet court.