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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 8/24/2021City of Glendale 5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 CZ0 Glendale A R I Z O N A Meeting Minutes Tuesday, August 24, 2021 2:30 P.M. Workshop Meeting Council Chambers City Council Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Ian Hugh Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Bart Turner CALL TO ORDER Mayor Weiers called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Ian Hugh Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Bart Turner Also Present: Kevin Phelps, City Manager Jim Gruber, Deputy City Attorney Julie K. Bower, City Clerk Vicki Rios, Assistant City Manager Jack Friedline, Assistant City Manager WORKSHOP SESSION 1. REDISTRICTING DISCUSSION Presented by: Douglas Johnson, National Demographics Corporation Ivy Beller Sakansky, National Demographics Corporation Julie K. Bower, City Clerk Ms. Bower read the item by title. She presented the requirements regarding redistricting of the six Council districts. Census data was not released until August 12, 2021 and the City must submit a Council -adopted plan to Maricopa County by December 15, 2021. She was seeking Council direction on redistricting criteria including the number of community workshops, public mapping options and the number of Council workshops for discussion. Ms. Beller Sakansky presented information on the compressed schedule for the redistricting process. Mr. Johnson presented redistricting requirements, goals and three mapping tools available for public use. Mayor Weiers clarified the districts would be contiguous except where there were county islands. Mr. Johnson said that was correct. Councilmember Malnar was in favor of using all three of the mapping tools. Councilmember Turner agreed with using all of the available mapping tools. He asked how the census block data varied from county precincts. Mr. Johnson said the adopted redistricting map would alter the county precinct City Council Meeting Minutes - August 24, 2021 Page 2 of 6 boundaries. Councilmember Turner asked what was typical of outreach meetings during the process. Mr. Johnson said it depended on the dynamics of growth. He did not anticipate the need for very many meetings. Ms. Bower said staff proposed that NDC prepare three map options for consideration at three community workshops to be held in September. Participants could attend virtually. Councilmember Turner asked if retrogression was an issue and what could be expected. Mr. Johnson said the goal would be to keep the same voting strength within the districts. Councilmember Clark asked what criteria was used for the Census Bureau to determine the 2019 estimate. Mr. Johnson provided information on how the Census Bureau obtained data for the estimates. Councilmember Clark recalled the Census response rate was 62%, which meant 38% of residents did not submit a response. Mr. Johnson said the 62% consisted of self -responding residents. A door-to-door follow up was done on the remaining 38%. Councilmember Clark was concerned with the Census figures provided. She hoped the figures would be underpopulated due to Yucca district's ongoing growth. Mayor Weiers asked if there was a federal requirement for the redistricting to be done based on the Census figures or could it be done with City estimates. Mr. Johnson said redistricting was required to be based on the Census data. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if the starting point for the redistricting was from the 2010 Census. Mr. Johnson said that was correct. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if dates and locations were determined for the September community workshops. Ms. Bower said, to allow time for advertising, the community workshops were scheduled for the week of September 20th. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if the locations were meant to spread the meetings across the City. Ms. Bower said that was correct. City Council Meeting Minutes - August 24, 2021 Page 3 of 6 Councilmember Tolmachoff asked whether the three purposed boundary maps would be shared with Council before the October 12th workshop. Mr. Johnson said the goal was to receive input on how the changes should be made and use the feedback to draft the three proposed maps. Mayor Weiers clarified whether each Councilmember would provide feedback on the boundaries of his or her district. Mr. Johnson said community feedback would be obtained at the workshops. The feedback would be provided to Council at its October 12th workshop. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked what kind of information would be provided at the community workshops. Mr. Johnson said the existing map would be shown with the Census data and which districts were over- and under -populated. He said the boundary changes would be minimal. Councilmember Aldama asked what part of the process addressed a low voter turnout district. Mr. Johnson said the lower voting population was usually combined. If a higher voter turnout area was added to it, it could dilute the voting strength. Councilmember Aldama suggested that a non-residential area, such as an industrial area, be represented by the entire Council rather than one Councilmember. Councilmember Tolmachoff clarified if a typically low voter turnout area was combined with a high voter turnout area, it could flip the vote. Mr. Johnson said there could be some movement as long as it did not overwhelm the protected class voters of the area. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked whether voter frequency was taken into account when moving district boundaries. Mr. Johnson said the whole socio-economic profile of the different neighborhoods was taken into account. Mayor Weiers clarified that the focus was on population and voting was not part of the formula. Mr. Johnson said the Voting Rights Act analysis did allow voter turnout levels as a factor. He was mindful of the voter turnout when adjusting borders. Councilmember Tolmachoff wanted to be sure a district's voting impact was not changed. Mr. Johnson did not anticipate major changes within districts. Councilmember Clark requested meeting with the consultants one-on-one to discuss boundary suggestions. City Council Meeting Minutes - August 24, 2021 Page 4 of 6 Mr. Johnson would work with staff to schedule meetings. Ms. Bower asked if Council was comfortable with the same redistricting criteria that was used 10 years ago. Mayor Weiers confirmed consensus to proceed with the same redistricting criteria. Ms. Bower asked if all three mapping tools should be used. Mayor Weiers confirmed consensus to use the three mapping tools. Ms. Bower asked if there was consensus for three community workshops. Councilmember Turner asked if the meetings would take place before or after drafting the maps. Ms. Bower said there had been discussion to draft the three maps to use as a starting point for discussion at the community meetings. Mr. Johnson confirmed that could be done. Councilmember Aldama supported Councilmembers meeting with the consultants, but wanted the meetings to occur prior to the maps being drafted. Councilmember Tolmachoff requested that the maps and presentation information be shared with Council prior to the community meetings in case constituents contacted Councilmembers. Councilmember Malnar agreed meeting one-on-one with the consultants was important. He asked when the mapping tools would be available. Mr. Johnson said it depended on the technology staff.lt usually took a few days to have it ready. Councilmember Turner felt it was useful to get public input before the maps were drafted. Mr. Johnson said the timeline was drastically reduced but it was Council's decision. Mayor Weiers said because of the timeline constraints, there was not enough time for six meetings. He asked for suggestions which resulted in adopting the map by November 23rd. Councilmember Clark suggested one-on-one meetings with the consultants, followed by presenting three maps to the public to expedite the process. Councilmember Malnar agreed with Councilmember Clark's suggestion. With the redistricting being minimal, it was beneficial to have three maps available during the community meetings. Councilmember Aldama also supported the number of meetings. Mayor Weiers asked if it was possible to have both the one-on-one meetings with City Council Meeting Minutes - August 24, 2021 Page 5 of 6 Council and the three community meetings by the end of September. Mr. Johnson said the one-on-one meetings would need to be done virtually. Mayor Weiers confirmed that Council would be available the first week of September for one-on-one virtual meetings and the City Clerk would schedule the community meetings. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT Mr. Phelps provided an update on the Crystal Lagoons project. The timeline was on track to have the hotel operator on site by December 2022. Mr. Phelps said staff was preparing to kick off the Live @ Murphy Park concert series for October. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT No report COUNCIL ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST Councilmember Tolmachoff requested a discussion regarding the cell tower lease at Fire Station 156. EXECUTIVE SESSION None ADJOURNMENT Mayor Weiers adjourned the meeting at 3:37 p.m. hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Glendale City Council of Glendale, Arizona, held on the 24th day of August, 2021. 1 further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 31 st day of August, 2021. J i . Bower, MMC, City Clerk City Council Meeting Minutes - August 24, 2021 Page 6 of 6