City Commission Districts to be Redrawn

Sarasota must redraw its city commission districts, because the gap is too great between the city's largest and smallest disticts, the city attorney advised the commission.

Sarasota's three city commission districts have not been redrawn since 1985. But because the city's "gross deviation" is too high, it is now legally required to realign them, City Attorney Robert Fournier told the commission in a memo. 

Gross deviation is the population spread between the city's highest populated district and its least. Ten percent and under is legal under federal law. Sarasota is currently at 13.1 percent. 

District One has a population of 16,171 and District Three has a population of 18,453. 

In a memo to commissioners, Fournier said the charter requires the city to review its districts one year after the Census data is released.

Because the city's spread is 3.1 percent over the legal limit, it must go back to the drawing board and redistrict.

"The first step in the redistricting process is to determine the population of the so called “ideal district” for the jurisdiction. In the city of Sarasota, this would be accomplished by dividing the total population of the city as per the 2010 census (51,918) by three, because there are three districts from which city commissioners are elected. Thus, the ideal” district for the city of Sarasota would have 17,306 person residing within its boundaries."

Fournier will make a presentation to city commissioners on Nov. 21.

Fournier, in city documents, makes no suggestions about potential changes except for the splitting of Newtown's population.

In a memo to commissioners, he said the city should not split Newtown because that would likely violate the Voting Rights Act.

"One important factor in the placement of the City of Sarasota district boundary lines is that the lines should not be drawn so as to split the city's African American population. That is, no redistricting plan should be proposed that would place a substantial portion of the city's African American community in one commission district with another substantial portion in another district. Drawing district lines in this manner would very likely violate the Voting Rights Act as an action deliberately intended to dilute African American voting strength."

Sarasota has five city commissioners: three representing their respective districts and two at-large seats. 

The discussion about redistricting is the last item on Monday night's agenda.