The meeting started at 7:30pm to ensure Karen Seinfeld could get from the airport to the meeting on time. When I arrived at 7:20pm, all members were present and getting to know each other casually.
The meeting began at 7:35pm with Karen Seinfeld presiding as Chair. The agenda and minutes were approved without changes. The discussion turned to the issue of a Districting Master.
Jennifer Schultz, the clerk, spoke of where the RFP was advertised. The Association of Washington Cities, University of Washington, Daily Journal of Commerce, Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction and Channel 22 were contacted with the advertisement. Several responses have been received – Suzanne Johnson, Burke & Associates, INS Information Systems (San Diego), Steven Garrett, and Marine Power Strategies.
Mike Abernathy asked if Schweitzer (sp?) had been contacted as they were the DM 10 years ago. There has been no contact with them.
Karen Seinfeld confirmed 2 written proposals have been received so far. She asked if anyone was present that was interested in being DM. Stephen Garrett rose and was invited to address the committee.
Mr. Garrett spoke of his credentials, a UW and former UWT professor who lives in Tacoma. He has GIS, social science and land planning background. He is a geographer by trade. He is also a former WSU prefessor. (both cats & dogs)
Karen Seinfeld asked him about the pitfalls he sees in the process. He stated the biggest would be the politics, which the committee appeared to bristle at.
Mike Abernathy remarked that the charter description of the committee says nothing about inserting politics in the process.
The other pitfalls noted were... locating the best boundaries for natural communities versus the boundaries of the census blocks.
San Ross pointed out he last redistricting split Puyallup and Graham and the natural communities were a concern for this iteration. Deryl McCarty agreed about the problem of Graham and Puyallup. (Personally, I would add the 5 way jurisdiction split in Spanaway too! But that was partly the state’s fault as well.)
Sam Ross also mentioned the process 10 years ago affected the residences of the current office holders. That required one to relocate to stay in his district.
Karen Seinfeld asked Doug Vanscoy about the legal issues of "districting" a current officeholder out of their council district. His response was that they could continue representing their district until the end of their current term.
Sam Ross asked Mr. Garrett if he could do the job. His response was yes.
Karen Seinfeld asked Mr. Garrett is he could do it within the times lines. He again answered yes.
The Chair opened the meeting to public comment.
I spoke to the committee in support of attempting to locate the addresses of current council people and keep them in their district boundaries.
David Sawyer spoke in opposition to that and support of starting from scratch to make natural neighborhoods a priority, noting the council people were free to move.
The committee followed with discussion of adding a deadline to the RFP. The Chair proposed support of this Friday for a deadline for submissions. Deryl McCarty noted the clerk should contact the current persons who expressed an interest to let them know. The committee agreed informally.
Susan Long responded to a committee question on the pricing. She said the contractor proposes and the committee negotiates.
Ken Blair asked about the $25,000 budget. “How much is left?”
Mike Abernathy responded that the $25,000 was the council’s initial allotment based on the amount used 10 years ago. He expressed that the council would likely increase that if the committee decided it was necessary to ask. He said he thought most of the council would understand that 10 years later the price would likely not be the same.
Karen Seinfeld asked for general agreement on the Friday cutoff (4-15-11) for proposals and that the clerk was to contact people who had inquired. She then asked Steven Garrett if he could provide references. He said he would email them the next day. The Chair then asked the Clerk to add the request for references in future proposals.
The discussion then turned to the issue of city boundaries compared to natural neighborhoods. Deryl McCarty commented that he was aware the City of Tacoma was too large for one council district and that perhaps the city’s natural neighborhoods should be a consideration in choosing lines of division in the city.
The committee als discussed bringing calendars to the next meeting as they needed to decide when and where the public meetings in the 7 council districts will be held in the next 60 days.
They set the next meeting on TUESDAY, April 19th at 7pm. The Annex is NOT available, so the location is TBA. (The Chair had a conflict on Wednesday.)
I commented that Tuesday is the Passover holiday, but that had no influence on the committee decision.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm.
0 comments:
Post a Comment