If the Charter Amendment passes

The following is a repeat of two successive posts in the Free Speech Zone on The Daily Planet.
Search on "Redistricting" at their website home page and these entries will show up. There are additional entries, but none as knowledgeable - what I have done is essentially to have annotated the substance of the timeline that Commissioner Lyall Schwartzkopf laid before the full Charter Commission. It has not been enacted by the Commission - there are too many uncertainties to permit the degree of finality expressed in the Principles and Procedures documents that have been enacted by the full Commission in expectation of passage of the overall amendment. If that amendment is rejected by the voters, all these projected intentions will be moot and the extant system used in 2002 will once again come into play.

FREE Speech Zone / Redistricting may be greatly changed.

By fredmarkus, Free Speech Zone

October 14, 2010

November 2, 2010. Election Day. The grand finale on the Minneapolis ballot asks the Minneapolis electorate to vote on a major change in how we implement the ward and park district boundary changes in the aftermath of the US 2010 Census.

If 51% of the voters who vote on this Minneapolis Charter amendment vote "yes", the amendment will be adopted. If so, the Charter Commission will have occasion at their regularly scheduled monthly meeting - November 3, the first Wednesday in the month and the day after election day, as it happens - to proceed on their planned approach to implementing this new system.

The "How to" documents about this are on the Commission's website
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/charter-commission/ near the bottom of the page. There you will find a link to the procedures the Charter Commission intends to follow
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/charter-commission/docs/Principles-for-Redistricting.pdf

These procedures were adopted unanimously by the full Charter Commission at their October 6, 2010 regular meeting.They were crafted by a drafting committee of eight Commissioners (Lyall Schwartzkopf, convenor, Margaret Dolan, Todd Ferrara, Andrew Kozak, Barbara Lickness, Jana Metge, Andrea Rubenstein, and Ian Stade). Charter Commission Chair Barry Clegg sat in on the committee's work ex officio and Commissioner Jan Sandberg also attended regularly and helped shape the best-estimate timeline the full Commission has before it.

This best-estimate timeline hasn't been adopted - too many variables related to activity at the State Legislature - and I notice that the link to this timeline has been removed from the Commission's website.

Not to step on anyone's prerogatives in this matter, suffice it to say that it will likely take all of 2011 to implement what has taken shape in the minds of the Commissioners.

It's also the case that three of the Commissioners will have their terms of office expiring next year. Commissioner Thomas Jancik's term expires February 26, 2011.Commission Chair Barry Clegg and Commissioner Ian Stade will see their terms of office expire on May 1, 2011.

Applications for anyone wishing to apply to the Chief Judge of Hennepin County for appointment to succeed these three worthies - and they themselves may apply for reappointment at the discretion of the Chief Judge - will apparently become available next month (November, 2010) pursuant to the open appointments process administered by the Minneapolis Clerk's office and will be available until the end of 2010 - that's my personal estimate.

The City Clerk's material is a bit murky, but 5-7 weeks seems standard for the window of opportunity. It may be that only the February 26, 2011 end of term will trigger the November/December window and the window for applications for the terms ending May 1, 2011 may not open until sometime in early 2011. Dunno.

Meanwhile, under the provisions of the Charter Commission procedures already in place, steps will soon be taken to start the ball rolling on establishing the 9-member Advisory Committee adjunct to the Charter Commission itself.

These are uncharted waters, so don't take offense if the official game plan remains uncertain for the time being.

There are some inevitable chunks of prep time in 2011.

For starters, it's the intention of the Charter Commission to have maximum prior notice to the general public throughout the redistricting process, beginning with having the Commissioners en toto or a committee of Charter Commissioners draft a proposed job description and proposed application form. (January, 2011)

These Commissioners will then have a public meeting for the purpose of discussing these drafts with persons interested in applying to be on the Advisory Committee (and, skipping ahead in the principles document, to be de facto peers of the 15 Charter Commissioners until the very final vote that the Charter Commissioners will take de jure that enacts the new ward and park district maps. (February, 2011)

That same month will presumably be used for the Commission to review what came out of the public discussion and then to draft a final version of both the Advisory Committee job description and the necessary application form.

The official results of the US Census for 2010 will also come into view in the first part of 2011 - as aslo, I should add, the scrubbed up results of the November, 2010 general election compliments of the Minnesota Secretary of State's registered-voter database. These data are the raw material of the redistricting process at the state level. Congressional Districts are redrawn first, then the State Senate and State House of Representative Districts - but maybe not so quickly because many more factors than just the head count are involved.

By statute, local jurisdictions like Minneapolis and Hennepin County have to wait to start their formal redistricting activities until after the State Legislature boundaries have been signed, sealed, and delivered. Litigation about these decisions could conceivably delay closure in these matters.

Meanwhile, the Charter Commission can enact the job description and application form referenced above and pick the dates of the window of opportunity for persons wishing to serve on the Advisory Committee to turn in their applications. (Estimated March 15- April 30, 2011)

Please bear in mind that the Commission is very keen to have diversity as a defining characteristic of this Advisory Group. The Procedures adopted by the Commission on October 6, 2010 make it clear that underrepresented groups (in terms of race, ethnicity, culture and the like) are meant to have first dibs on these nine seats, provided that the applicants who come forward are clear about the "good of the whole" sentiments expected of the full "Redistricting Group" as the composite of the 15 Charter Commissioners and the 9 Advisory Committee Members will come to be called.

While the Charter Commissioners are marking time during the open window for applications to serve on the Advisory Committee to arrive, they will presumably take occasion to formalize their approach to reviewing these applications. Thus either the full Commission or a subset of its members will have the month of May, 2011, most likely, to arrive at their recommendations for the appointments that the full Commission will enact in early June, 2011.

By then the membership of the Charter Commission itself will have been stabilized by the start of new terms of office for whoever is to occupy the three seats up for renewal.


The Road Ahead for the Redistricting Group, Assuming the Charter Amendment Passes

Subject to revision, to be sure, because some intentions may be impacted by events at the State Legislature.

Preparatory steps will include a broadly inclusive advance notice to interested persons and groups. The Redistricting Group, now 24 members strong, will have an orientation meeting and a tutorial from the City Attorney about duties and legal restraints. Action steps will be to begin drafting rules for conduct and process. (June, 2011)

Next, the Redistricting Group will hold two city-wide meetings in different parts of the City to explain and discuss the proposed rules process, followed by a formal hearing on the proposed rules. These "rules of engagement" established with the benefit of public input, the Redistricting Group will then finalize and enact the rules to be followed while redistricting. (July, 2011)

The City Attorney will be called upon to review Federal requirements and Charter requirements and explain the timeline for completion of the City's redistricting process (which could in fact be well into 2012. There is a stipulation that the City's redistricting must be completed in "the year ending in two (2012). Another stipulation requires completion at least 14 days before the first date by which candidates for the Park Board may file and a completion by the first date by which candidates for the city council, etc. may file. However, to the best of my knowledge, these municipal races won't take place until 2013, so go figure.

Additionally, the City Clerk will identify City staff who will work with the Redistricting Group, a budget will be established to be administered by the Clerk's office, and a non-partisan computer specialist hired to help with the use of redistricting software. (August, 2011)

Assuming that the State Legislature has concluded its redistricting process, the Redistricting Group begins drafting new boundaries for the City' Wards. (September, 2011)

Arriving at first draft maps for City Wards and Park Districts, the Redistricting Group will hold two city-wide hearings to receive citizen input on these first-draft maps. (October, 2011)

Having had the benefit of public input, the Redistricting Group agrees on a proposed (second-draft) redistricting map for the City's Wards. This product is then published in a legal newspaper and at least 7 days before the Reistricting Group holds three city-wide hearings. If the proposed Park District map is ready, that too will be taken notice of and then forwarded to the Park Board for their comments per the instructions in the City Charter. (November, 2011)

Having had the benefit of the three public hearings in November, the Redistricting Group will draft a final Ward map and upon approval by the larger Group, that map will be forwarded to the Charter Commission for final approval. (December, 2011)

The Charter Commission reviews and enacts the final Ward map and files this finished product with the City Clerk. Similarly, the Charter Commission, with the benefit of comments from the Park Board, reviews and enacts the final Park District map and files this finished product with the Park Board. (January, 2012)

As referenced earlier, the Charter requires that Ward Boundaries be drawn in the year ending in two (2012). I'm not sure what significance that has if the next regular municipal election won't be until 2013. Whenever this next municipal election occurs, there won't be any primary election because of IRV.

There's also a big loose end as the Legislature comes to grips with the need for process regarding the new School Board Districts and the Charter Commission preparations are silent about this for now.

There's also room in this tentative timetable for litigation at either the state or the municipal level as was famously the case in 2008 in the US Senate contest and less dramatically the case post the 2005 municipal election. This too is beyond current knowlege.

So that's the story. If 51% of the voters who vote on the amendment vote in the affirmative, something very close to this projected narrative will come to pass. There is also a cautionary proviso that the City Attorney has to review the whole set of proposed procedures and processes for legality, but there were some mighty fine attorneys on that drafting committee and on the full Charter Commission.

I certainly hope the electorate agrees that this is a significant improvement, however the rather numerous hearings and long timeline.

My belief is that more kinds of people, particularly people quite a bit younger than the likes of those of us who are getting pretty long in the tooth, can get valuable exposure to civic process and come to realize that they too can have responsible places at our municipal table and beyond.

It's also the case that far more people will have what amount to ringside seats as redistricting comes to pass. Politics will be involved - we are political animals after all - but without insider advantage. It'll be pretty difficult if not impossible to steer this Group and this Commission from the sidelines.