TU: Public meetings scheduled on Jacksonville City Council redistricting

[Patricia M. McBride]

People need to get involved in this process.  It is very important to make sure our city is redistricted to allow for proper representation.  I already live in a state district that basically gives me no voice in the state senate, and I have no desire to have the city redistricted to eliminate my voice at the city level.  Folks if you have any ideas about this or want to voice an opinion, it is time to get involved.

Meeting dates, places

Meetings about the Jacksonville City Council's proposed district changes will be at 6 p.m. at Florida State College at Jacksonville campuses on these dates:

Wednesday, Aug. 24: North Campus, 4501 Capper Road, Room C126;
Thursday, Aug. 25: Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd., Room F128;
Monday, Aug. 29: South Campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Wilson Center for the Arts Lakeside Conference Room;
Thursday, Sept. 1: Deerwood Center, 9911 Old Baymeadows Road, Room B1204.

Excerpt from the article:

 

By Steve Patterson jacksonville.com August 16, 2011 - 02:49am

Public meetings scheduled on Jacksonville City Council redistricting

After months of talks inside City Hall, members of Jacksonville's City Council are taking plans for new council district boundaries out to neighborhoods.

The council Rules Committee will host public meetings at four Florida State College at Jacksonville campuses by Sept. 1 to invite feedback on a plan developed by a council reapportionment panel.

Some members said that input can help them do their job.

"The more transparency, the more inclusiveness, the better the product," said Councilman Johnny Gaffney, who chaired the reapportionment effort since July 1.

Gaffney said he's hoping neighborhood groups and the city's Citizen Planning Advisory Committees will be involved in the discussions.

The city will buy ads in three newspapers and spread public notices in advance of the meetings, city lawyer Peggy Sidman told committee members.

The council has a Nov. 18 deadline to adopt new council district lines, which will also become a basis for School Board boundaries.

The changes are supposed to balance the number of people represented by each council district, which shifted as some neighborhoods grew and others shrank between 2000 and 2010.

The plan would break up one district that now stretches from Mayport to the Clay County line, but it also would stretch others, with one running from the Philips Highway to the Nassau River.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-08-16/story/public-meetings...