Agenda 11-16-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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16 1 heavily weighted toward urban areas of the county, because that is where people live. He said 2 he still agrees with the belief that single member district is beneficial for accountability. He said 3 holding a district 2 seat demands more accountability to those who have lived in Orange County 4 for generations, as well as those who have just moved here. He said he does not agree that 7 5 separate districts would create a more divisive board, but it may encourage more discussion. 6 He said he holds a rural seat, and if he had not spoken out against light rail because he saw no 7 benefit to those in the rural areas, while the tax burden would have applied to whole county, it 8 would not have allowed for a fairly robust conversation over a multi-year period. He said he is 9 open to healthy discourse as long as it is not vicious. He said if the BOCC can figure out how to 10 draw the districts, he can see benefits to single member districts. He said he strongly supports 11 District nominated, District elected. He said it makes no sense to be nominated by District 2 12 and voted on by the whole county. He said in Orange County, winning the primary equals 13 winning the election. He said the question for him is how to draw districts and how to ensure if 14 a change is made, it allows for a broader range of political views to be present. 15 Commissioner Greene thanked the group and staff for the thorough and informative 16 report. She said the only thing she is really clear on right now is that, whether there are only 17 districts or combination with at-large, district candidates should be nominated and elected only 18 by one district because current process is confusing. She said in a way it is causing 19 commissioners to serve two masters. She agreed with Commissioner Hamilton that more public 20 input is needed before a referendum. 21 Chair Price said to be clear, the Board will not be doing an up or down vote on anything 22 soon, until a group is put together to look at how to draw the districts, which would require public 23 input. 24 Commissioner Greene said seven districts may not even be the right number, and more 25 conversation is needed. 26 Chair Price agreed. 27 Commissioner Bedford asked if the group had more time, is there anything else it would 28 have wanted to study or explore. 29 Patrick Mulkey said possibly nonpartisanship, but to him, that is a joke, as there is no 30 way to really hide one's political leanings. 31 Judge Bryan said a couple of members discussed needing more time, but because of 32 deadline from the Commissioners, the group did not really discuss other potential paths 33 because it was trying to meet the deadline for the referendum. He said a person in a district 34 seat should think about the county as a whole, and commissioners could take a pledge 35 promising to do so. He said there was good conversation about what at-large could provide and 36 what seven districts and no at-large would provide. He referred to the question from 37 Commissioner Hamilton about desiring more substantial evidence of what the group found to 38 support this recommendation, and said more information can be gathered. 39 Commissioner Bedford thanked the board and staff for their hard work. She agreed with 40 other commissioners that the survey sample size of 413 is a little weak, and just means more 41 public outreach and representation is necessary. She said she is not sure that the public was 42 demanding this discussion. She said the previous discussion was not about districts, but really 43 focused on methods that do require general assembly approval, especially district nominate, 44 district elect, with which she agrees. She said she is in District 1, and has struggled with some 45 of the recent zoning requests. She said it felt that there was more pressure on the two District 2 46 and two At-Large Commissioners, and she felt less accountable. She said when Commissioner 47 Dorosin and Commissioner Rich presented this they were more focused on having the two 48 District 1 candidates in that one election, and the fact that they lost and single shot voting. He 49 said in talking with Commissioner Dorosin and trying to get him to explain it, he argued that 50 typically single member districts help minorities get elected. She said that that logic here does 51 not hold water because a Black woman just won by over 2000 votes. She said other reasons