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Home My WebLink AboutA007 - Letter to Council dated August 2, 1991 'ii' CITY OF AMES , WA 50010 o August 2, 1991 AUG - L The Honorable Larry R. Curtis, Mayor, CITY(I and Members of the City Council �r of the City of Ames, Iowa Re: Reprecincting/Helser Hall Dear Mayor Curtis and Council Members: This pertains to the concerns raised by Charles Hammer at the last Council meeting. The legislature described the boundary between the 61st and 62nd legislative districts by referring to West Street intersecting with Beyer Court. SF. 546, §61. But, Beyer Court is a U—shaped street having both a westerly and an easterly leg. In preparing the reprecincting proposal , we thought that the West St./Beyer Court intersection referred to was the west leg of Beyer, which would put Helser Hall and its approximately 1,000 occupants on the district 61 side of the legislative line so they could be included in the 4th ward, which needs people for purposes of equalization with the other wards. In following up on Mr. Hammer's concerns, I learned from the Legislative Services Bureau staff that they did not perceive Beyer Court as being a U—shaped street having a westerly leg when they drew up the redistricting bill , and intended the legislative line to go between Helser and Friley. To accommodate that line, the Census Bureau actually split what had been a single census block 114 into two blocks, 114A and 114B, located on the east and west sides respectively of the east leg of Beyer Court. That puts Helser Hall and its approximately 1000 people in block 114B, which, unfortunately, the Census Bureau reports to have a population of 0. The Census Bureau's mislocation of the population of Helser Hall is unfortu— nate because Section 49.5 of the Code of Iowa requires that: "The boundaries of each precinct shall follow the boundaries of areas for which official population figures are available from the most recent federal decennial census . . ." Literally, that provision requires the reprecincting to treat block 114B as having 0 population even though it is the site of Helser Hall . We will , our course, ask the Census Bureau to acknowledge the error and officially report the population of block 114B to reflect the actual count of Helser Hall residents at the time of the census (933) . AMES - THE CENTER OF IT ALL However, the Census Bureau is not noted for flexibility, and there may not be a timely acknowledgement and adjustment. , Then a question arises as to the appropriateness of drawing a precinct based on census block data known to be erroneous. The Iowa Code contains this clause: ". . .where all or some of the areas for which data for that census are available are not suitable for forming precincts, the City Council may use other reliable and documented indica- tors of population distribution is forming precincts . . ." In my opinion, that clause gives legal authorization to deviate from the census block data. Counsel for the Legislative Service Bureau was not so sure. I suspect there could be a concern about setting a precedent for cities to deviate from census data they find to be in error. The most serious problem, however, is that moving 993 people from block 114A (Dist. 61) into block 114B (Dist. 62) also moves that population out of Ward 4, where it is needed for equalization, and into Ward 3, where more people are a definite threat to a lawful , constitutionally valid apportionment_. As proposed by staff, the reprecincting results in a population to the 4th Ward, the smallest ward, of 11,450; and, to the third ward, the largest ward, of 12,343. That is a 7% deviation. Under decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, voting district deviations in population that exceed 10% are a prima facie violation of the "one person, one-vote" requirements of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown v. Thomson, 462 U.S. 835, 103 S.Ct 2690, 77 LEd 2d 214 (1983) ; Conner v. Finch, 431 U.S. 407, 97 S.Ct. 1828, 52 L.Ed. 465; Gaffney v. Cummings, 412 U.S. 735, 93 S.Ct. 2321, 37 L.Ed.2d 298 (1973) ; White v. Regester, 412 U.S.755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed2d 314 (1973) . When the population of Helser Hall is taken from the 4th ward and added to the third ward, the result is a 4th ward population of 10,457, and a third ward population of 13,336. The deviation is 27.5%, which is prima facie unconstitutional . A bipartisan committee has been formed, I 'm told, that will submit a propos- al . We have borrowed a spread sheet program from the Finance Department for further work on this matter. It's possible that you will receive a new pro- posal , and it could look a lot different. Yours truly, John R. Klaus City Attorney JRK:gmw cc: Charles Hammer Norm Rudi Ray Jones James Hutter Gary Kaufman, Legislative Services Bureau Eden Schmitt Nancy Dionigi