Orange County NC Website
<br />Commissioner Corey's proposal was included in the agenda packet (It was also included <br />in the April 18t" packet). This proposal also satisfies the statutory requirements and contains a <br />district with all of Chapel Hill Township with four members, a district of the rest of the County <br />with two members, and one member at-large. <br />Also included in the packet were two proposed resolutions, which would both implement <br />proposal D. There is not a resolution to implement Commissioner Corey's proposal because at <br />the April 18t" meeting, the Board voted to include a combination "nominating district"lot-large <br />system. A "nominating district" is one which in the primary election will only allow people living <br />in the district to vote for candidates who live in the district. A "residency district" is one in which <br />the candidate must live in the district, but all citizens in the county can vote for the candidate. <br />One of the several principles that the County Commissioners adapted would have all of the <br />people in the County voting for a majority of the members of the Board of County <br />Commissioners. In a nominating district system, Commissioner Corey's proposal would not <br />have all of the people in the County nominating a majority of the members. The resolutions give <br />a choice of either having a "nominating district" system in the primary or a "residency district" <br />system in the primary. Both resolutions call for a referendum on this new system in November. <br />Geof Gledhill answered clarifying questions from Commissioner Carey and <br />Commissioner Gordon. <br />Commissioner Foushee asked if they were to apply the map from Commissioner Corey's <br />proposal (which includes all of Chapel Hill Township in one district} to proposal D, if it would still <br />meet the one person, one vote requirements and Geof Gledhill said no. That is because Chapel <br />Hill Township includes two-thirds of the of the population and the rest of the county has one- <br />third the population. Therefore Chapel Hill Township would have four commissioners, and not <br />three as in the proposal D, to achieve the one person, one vote standard. <br />Commissioner Gordan referred to the size of the deviations from the one person, one <br />vote standard for proposal D and for Commissioner Corey's proposal. The maximum deviation <br />allowed is 5 percent, and one of the districts in proposal D deviates by 4'/ percent (District 2) <br />with the other deviating somewhat less (3°~}. In contrast, the districts in Commissioner Corey's <br />proposal have very little deviation (1/2 °~ and 1 °~} from the ideal number of people in the district <br />needed to match the one person, one vote requirement. Commissioner Gordon then asked <br />whether, if at the next census if one of the districts goes over the 5 percent deviation, if the <br />commissioners would have to redistrict. Geof Gledhill said that if, upon the new census data, <br />one of the districts is off more than 5%, and he is still County Attorney when that happens, he <br />would recommend redistricting. <br />Commissioner Gordon pointed out that proposal D was closer to reaching the 5°~ <br />deviation, and therefore closer to the necessity for redistricting. <br />Commissioner Carey said that the reason for putting his map forward relates to the <br />deviation and how close the initial map was to 5%. He was trying to minimize a chance for <br />redistricting. He said that the Board had adopted several principles, including one person/one <br />vote and making rural districts rural, while the urban districts are urban. He wanted to keep <br />rural and urban areas separate. He said that the key issue is that the proposal D map is very <br />close to the 5°~ deviation and therefore brings them close to redistricting after the next census. <br />Chair Jacobs said that he worked on this with Commissioner Foushee and <br />Commissioner Halkiotis and the Board voted for proposal B, and proposal D was closer to the <br />spirit of proposal B than anything else they could come up with. He said that it does allow better <br />separation of rural interests from urban interests. He said that all would be represented by the <br />majority of the Board of County Commissioners no matter where they live. He said that <br />Commissioner Corey's map guarantees that Chapel Hill Township will always have the majority <br />votes. He thinks that the purpose of the citizen comment was to have more representation in <br />the rural area of the County. That is why he likes proposal D. <br />