County approves redistricting plan

Commissioners propose same tax rate as 2011

August 22, 2011 9:51 PM

The Ector County Commissioners Court showed Monday you can’t make everyone happy all of the time, but you can still get a unanimous vote.


Commissioners voted on revised redistricting plans for the county in response to objections raised by Commissioner Armando Rodriguez July 18 at what was supposed to be the redistricting task force’s final public hearing on the first map. Following a process that began in April, Rodriguez raised objections at that hearing about the distribution of minority voters.

Commissioners approved the new Plan A redistricting map, despite Rodriguez’s objections about minority distribution.

Rodriguez said some of the people who approached him did not believe minorities were represented well enough in Precinct 3, which caused quite a stir in previous redistricting meetings and was also the vehicle for the creation of a third map plan.

Rodriguez helped create Plan C with the county demographer, a plan that was sent to commissioners Wednesday.

That plan drew no support when Rodriguez made a motion to approve it, and commissioners instead approved Plan A, with Rodriguez voting for the plan as well.

Rodriguez said he wouldn’t be able to change the minds of the other commissioners, so he voted for it, despite his problems with the plan.

Plan A moves a total of 1,197 people of precinct 102, who will not be able to vote in the next election. Plan C would have moved more than 15,000 people from multiple precincts. Plan B, developed at the same time as Plan A, would also have moved more than 13,000 people.

Redistricting is necessitated by demographic changes measured by the U.S. census each decade. According to federal guidelines, to ensure each person’s vote has the same weight, the difference in population between the smallest and largest district can’t be more than 10 percent.

If some things are changing, others are likely to stay the same.

Ector County commissioners voted to propose a tax rate identical to last year, but a faint hope exists that it could be reduced after public hearings.

“There’s still a chance we can find a reduction in the rate,” Commissioner Greg Simmons said. “Had it not been for the (information technology costs), I would say we would have been in a position to lower the tax rate a little bit.”

But he said despite some hope, it’s not likely commissioners will be able to lower the tax rate. As proposed, the steady tax rate will actually increase taxes in the county because of a 5 percent appraised property value increase.

If the tax rate were lowered now, Simmons said it could end up causing commissioners to take too much out of the reserve fund. The proposed budget already is taking almost $3 million from the $8.7 million fund balance to cover costs, despite an increase in revenue.

Simmons said commissioners did not want to issue debt for the IT project as they have for past projects, and is hoping the county can spend less than it budgets and save that money for projects in the future.

Ector County Judge Susan Redford said she hopes taxpayers appreciate the work the court has done to cut the budget, including the trimming of an extra $500,000 in the past two weeks.

But she said she understands there may be some additional wants and needs addressed in the public hearings.

“We have a responsibility to the taxpayers to provide them with the best possible services we can,” Redford said. “But we do have to take into consideration that this is taxpayer money we are using and we have to look at what they want, too. It’s a difficult balancing act.”

She said the commissioners would have to take a look at reducing the tax rate if that’s what taxpayers want, but reinforced what Simmons said that the IT program would make that difficult, if not impossible.

IT renovations, which could cost the county as much as $10 million over the next five years, have been pegged as a necessity to overhaul aging hardware and connect systems throughout the entire county.

The meetings will take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 2 and 6 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Ector County Annex.


http://www.oaoa.com/articles/county-70803-plan-commissioners.html

300,000 Registrations for non-citizens

Re:  Redistricting
David Simcox, former Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies released a study in early October 2008 that said an estimated 1.8 million to 2.7 million non-citizen immigrants in the United States may be illegally registered to vote and over 300,000 of them are from Texas, thereby potentially influencing the outcome of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.[17]

The counties mentioned in the report were Bexar, Dallas, El Paso, Harris, Maverick, Presidio, Starr, Tarrant, Travis, Valverde, and Webb counties. The report found that, according to Mr. Simcox's calculations, Dallas, Harris, Presidio and Starr counties had a higher number of registered voters than legitimately eligible voters, a figure that excludes non-citizens and convicted felons.[17]

http://www.blogger.com/goog_280564234

This was what I was talking about...

Via e-mail ~ Dragonrider
 
So MALDEF is challenging the redistricting in South and West Texas according to their website.  Novembeer is going to be interesting.  I've watched NCLR, LULAC, SEIU, and ACORN for years do their registration drives.  They turn out to look a lot like the ones Luis Gutierrez runs.  ~ Faye

MALDEF and MAPA: Hiding behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

I'm reasonably certain the Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves. It was certainly NOT their intention that any one racial or cultural group of people should be "Packed" into any area of representation!
This smells so badly of MALDEF, and MAPA that one must wonder if they are not the organizations "pulling the strings" of those who are crying the loudest about "minority" representation!
75% packed into a single district, to make up for those who don't vote?!
If Anglos or Blacks or Native Peoples tried this, the screaming would lift the roof clear off the Ector County Coliseum!
What needs to happen here, is to get people out to VOTE! Get everybody educated about the issues, stop whining about being "victims", "man-up" and get off your lazy duffs and VOTE! I've said this before, and I'll say it 'til I'm dead and gone: WE ARE NOT DIFFERENT RACES OR CULTURES, WE ARE AMERICANS! Let's for God's sake start acting like it!!
When an organization or group starts talking "Reconquista" or revolution of one kind or another, and let's be realistic, it is quite a popular idea with some people throughout the Southwest, trouble will surely follow.
We, as Americans, must learn to separate the truth from someone's agenda of keeping us in a turmoil to further their own personal goals: total control of the people in a given area. This is the worst form of Megalomania. It is at best a form of slavery!
For the length of time that this is a "race-culture" issue, this will continue to be the "fly in the ointment"! I would like to know who the entities are that insist on "stirring the pot" of this "us against them" way of thinking. This is the kind of thinking that will be the down-fall of America.
If we, as Americans, with ALL our different cultural systems, cannot come to see ourselves as Americans first, and cultural diversities second, then we, as a Nation, will cease to exist as a cohesive whole, and break up into a System of Tribes that will achieve NOTHING!
History has already proven that an unassociated group of tribes can be defeated rather easily by a relatively small force of determined people. If we let those who would foment racial-cultural hatred guide us into that mentality, we WILL fall.


"UNITED, WE STAND; DIVIDED, WE FALL!" ~Lordhawke

Update on Ector County Redistricting

There's two articles in today's (Sunday, July 24) Odessa American.  "Redistricting still up in air" reveals some very interesting info on just where Rodriguez's, LULAC's, Una Voz's, et al, collective head is.  The other article is the editorial and the OA doesn't have it on line yet.  I'll add a link to it when they do. 

It seems they're not happy with the Hispanic majority they now enjoy in Districts 1, 3, and 5.  It appears they also want District 4 and for the ratios to go up to as much as 75% Hispanic... "because, he says, those numbers are needed to overcome Hispanics’ lack of belief in the electoral system and their tendency not to vote."

Geeeeeez, seen the lack of belief in the electoral system in the general population here lately?  Exactly why do they think Congress's approval rating is so low?  This is like having a race and putting one contestant 3/4 of the way down the track.  PLUS!!!!  These groups get federal grants, TAXPAYER monies, to do whatever they want with it EVEN THOUGH they're SUPPOSED to be NON-PARTISAN (and they most certainly are NOT non-partisan) in order to get that money and then they underwrite each other.  In this case, Carol Uranga let it slip that MALDEF is behind this.  Yep.  Jason got it on tape.  It's at desertvision.net.  Then, I ran across a site that reports business info and Una Voz was reported as having 3 employees and a $70,000 income.  As far as I know, Una Voz has NOT obtained their 501(c)(3) status, IF they've even applied for it, so where did this money come from?  I know for a fact that he was soliciting donations (see "Una Voz Unida" posting on this site) but $70,000?  There's a lot to this story that isn't being told. ~ Faye



Redistricting still up in air:


http://www.oaoa.com/news/districts-69066-see-overcome.html

OK.  Here's the online OA editorial:
IN OUR VIEW: Redistricting fireworks fun to watch


http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/folks-69049-tackling-fun.html

Una Voz Unida & El Plan de Aztlan de Santa Barbara

http://www.csuchico.edu/mecha/documents/EPSB%20Outline.pdf

this was part of a document originally on Art Leal’s website…after a web posting on watchdogs he took it off…

Jason

Yep.  Dragonrider and I saw it on there probably about the same time you did and slammed him in the OA for it when he started blogging that we should just sit back and let the illegal aliens roll over us, that it was inevitable.  Hmmmpppfffttzz!  Educational material, indeed. ~ Faye

First public meeting on redistricting draws opposing views

July 14, 2011 9:42 PM
BY SARAH MUELLER
http://www.oaoa.com/news/first-68576-public-redistricting.html?cb=1310698383

Residents spoke Thursday evening at the first public hearing on the proposed redistricting maps for all five of the local taxing entities, and responses from the handful of speakers were mixed.

Much of the focus aimed at the city’s proposed map, which has changes that would affect around 5,700 people in Odessa city limits.

“I feel we’re lumped all onto the south side,” said Carol Uranga, a member of the local League of United Latin American Citizens.

According to federal guidelines, to ensure every voting district is similar in size and represents minority voters, deviance in population between the smallest and largest district can’t exceed 10 percent.

The Ector County Redistricting Task Force met for the first time in April, and is made up of representatives from Ector County, the Ector County Independent School District, the Ector County Hospital District board, Odessa College and the city of Odessa. They were assisted by Arturo Michel, a partner with the law firm Thompson & Horton, and redistricting expert Leslie Johnston.

The city of Odessa faced the biggest challenge in redistricting efforts out of all the taxing entities. The difference in population between the city’s District 2 (the largest) and District 5 (the smallest) was more than 20 percent and necessitated moving lines in every area because the districts aren’t adjacent.

Art Leal, president of Una Voz Unida of Odessa, said the new lines for city council District 3 violated the Voting Rights Act because he said it reduced the percentage of minority voting-age residents in that district by 20 percent, and suggested making other changes.

Odessa gained almost 9,000 people in the 2010 census count compared to 2000. Districts 1, 3 and 5 would be majority-minority districts with minorities as more than half of the voting population. Ector County would have three majority-minority districts, with two having a more than 50 percent minority voting-age population.

OC, the school district and the hospital district would have five majority-minority populations with four having more than a 50 percent minority voting-age population.

Republican activist and radio talk-show host Jason Moore also spoke at the public hearing. He said that while the Hispanic organizations were claiming the maps were drawn to prevent minorities from voting, nothing is preventing them from voting the way they want.

“The people testifying tonight rarely go to the polls,” Moore said.

District 3 City Councilwoman Barbara Graff said she plans to check voting records in the area north of East 42nd Street that Leal had referenced in his comment to the task force. She said she will encourage every member of her district to vote.

“I personally don’t have any problem with it,” she said of the proposed changes.

Another public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Monday in the Commissioner’s Courtroom at the Ector County Annex on Eighth Street. Maps of the draft plans for each taxing entity are posted on the city and county websites.

IF YOU GO:


What: Redistricting public hearings.
When: 6 p.m., Monday.
Where: Commissioners Courtroom, Ector County Annex, 1010 E. Eighth St.
Call: 498-4100.

Redistricting Maps