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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Public comment at Council meeting results in one more map
by Melissa Corker, published on August 17, 2011 at 1:14 AM
Storyline: Politics
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City Council chambers were overflowing Tuesday night with residents lined up to voice their concerns about which redistricting map will – finally – be the final map, but the meeting didn’t end until one council member asked for one more map to be brought to the table.
With audience members behind them holding signs that read, “Just tell us why?” and “Keep Oak Park whole,” more than 70 speakers chastised, questioned and – at times – shouted at council members as they expressed outrage over the most recent development in the redistricting saga.
The outpouring of emotion from meeting attendees stemmed from a City Council vote last week on a proposed map to redraw city district boundaries – the eighth map to be discussed by council members since the citizens advisory committee sent its final recommendations to the council on July 12.
The map, designated “Neighborhoods Together 2.0,” was introduced by Councilman Steve Cohn at the Aug. 9 council meeting – after public comment had concluded and before some council members had an opportunity to review it. That map was ultimately passed on a 6-3 vote as the ‘base map’ to be considered for final approval later this month.
During two hours of public comment Tuesday, council members heard testimony from lifelong residents of Oak Park, Sacramento High School students and community leaders.
Some speakers accused council members of “back room dealings,” while others questioned council members’ intentions by “creating a charade that was the advisory committee” on redistricting.
“You’re going to sit there and rip off the economic arm of Med Center off of Oak Park with no regard for the community?” asked Betty Williams, president of the Sacramento NAACP. “Really? No!”
Williams chastised council members for the “political theft of Oak Park,” and – with no subtle implication about the future of council seats – she added, “You are not the only ones who will take something away.”
All who spoke Tuesday opposed the boundaries in one district area or another, but the majority specifically opposed the shift of the neighborhood that includes Med Center and Sacramento High School from District 5 into Councilman Kevin McCarty’s District 6.
“My mother told me never to call folks ‘stupid,’ “ said Oak Park resident Joe Debbs, “so I’ll just say you are ‘unwise’ to break up Oak Park.
“It’s not too late to fix your mistake,” he added.
The impact of the outpouring of public comment seemed to sink in with council members right before the council adjourned.
District 5 Councilman Jay Schenirer asked city staff to re-analyze the most recent map and bring it back to council for consideration at the Aug. 23 meeting – this time redrawing district lines to return the contested area surrounding the Med Center to District 5.
“We’ll see if this (map) changes anybody’s mind (on the council),” Schenirer said after the meeting.
Although redistricting was not an item on the meeting agenda, the opportunity for public comment is a regular part of every council meeting. Speakers are limited to two minutes to address council members, and council members do not usually respond from the dais to public comments.
Tuesday’s meeting was anything but “usual,” however.
As the council chamber filled with people and stacks of speaker requests were handed to the city clerk, the first to step up to the podium was County Supervisor and former Sacramento mayor Jimmy Yee.
Yee told council members that he was speaking to them for one reason only – to plead for the South Land Park neighborhood to be kept together.
“I know how hard this (redistricting) process is and, as a county supervisor, I’m going through it now,” Yee said. “But what you simply have to do is try.”
Yee encouraged council members to consider the history of South Land Park and try to keep the neighborhood together.
Councilman Rob Fong, who represents the South Land Park neighborhood where Yee lives, thanked Yee for addressing the council but said there might not be any solution to dividing that neighborhood.
Yee suggested drawing the district boundary line at Sutterville Road instead of at Fruitridge, where the latest map shows it.
“So, you don’t care what district it’s in,” Fong asked, “you just want all of South Land Park together?”
“I love having you as my councilman, Rob,” Yee responded, “but I’ll love Jay Schenirer, too, if he’s my new representative. I’m not here for politics – I’m here for my neighborhood. Don’t split South Land Park.”
Michael Boyd, president of Oak Park Neighborhood Association, referred council members to an email sent to Elmhurst residents from McCarty that asked for support of the newest map and called Oak Park a “treasure.”
“Of course you see (it) as a treasure,” Boyd said to McCarty. “One that belongs in District 5.
“It smacks of elitism that cannot be ignored,” Boyd said of the new map boundaries.
At the end of the meeting, after the chambers had emptied, Schenirer said he asked for the new map revision so there would “at least be something on the table” when the council returns next week and takes up redistricting as a discussion item on the agenda.
“If we’re really about neighborhoods and keeping neighborhoods together,” Schenirer said, “and there’s no detrimental effects or musical chairs with other districts around (the changes), then I would hope the council takes it into consideration.”
Schenirer’s map revision will be brought before the City Council at its next meeting Aug. 23. A vote for final approval of a redistricting map is expected before the Sept. 6 deadline for submission to the state.
Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker
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(Addendum: I am surprised at the thumbs downs. The non-citizenship (or not yet citizenship) of many in the Hispanic community--legal resdient alien immigrants, *not* illegal aliens--is a simple fact. This simple fact is *not* a comment against legal immigrants. And I had no idea Sandy Sheedy was so popular here.)
And I don't think there's anything ignorant about my statements, anon. Watts, Stockton and Oakland are rife with crime. Does this statement make me ignorant? No. I'm calling a spade a spade.
Defining a region and then providing an authoritative source for crime statistics about that area will also help take some of the emotion out of your argument and likely make it more palatable to The Sacramento Press community
Note: Check in our rights to participate in the process because we simply live in the United States! Via these rights you are tolerated much less encouraged to join in the discussion.
It is also interesting to note, that many of the inflammatory and sometimes mis-informed comments on this page come form people who do not have the courage to put their name to their posts.
Jl - Who are you, and what is your agenda? Why are you accusing us of dishonesty?
Take a tablespoon of cement, harden up and put your name up.
A picture of a white wolf and the use of "calling a spade a spade" are easy giveaways this guy is proud of his racism. Don't be so naive.
http://www.adl.org/learn/news/white_wolves.asp
City Council should leave Oak Park and (South Land Park) alone.
Yet in the twenty years we have been here new-comers to my neighborhood have made decisions to relocate or invest because the the proximity and the hopeful expectations those area assets emote. You should come to the OPNA meetings and field those questions. Great questions to the dozens of neighbors who come to be part of the change, to share and re build Oak Park. You'll get the honest answers.
"As you know, the UCD Med Center is a great community asset with huge economic and community benefits. But as our immediate neighbor, it does come with issues that directly affect Elmhurst more than any other neighborhood. As residents of Elmhurst, we’re all too familiar with the history of recent hospital construction, the Blue Lights, the helicopter noise and routes, parking, traffic, ambulance routes, and the future $1 billion expansion. We know firsthand how the UCD Med Center impacts our neighborhood the most."
I find this a really odd summation of UCD Health System's value to Elmhurst as perceived by McCarty, particularly in light of the pride and appreciation that Oak Park expresses when it comes to the institution. The comment suggests that McCarty wants UCDHS in his district not so that he can represent it as an advocate or even show community pride in it, but so that he can use it as a kind of NIMBY pinata from whose battered carcass there will come a shower of political candy.
More to the point, though, it suggests a values system in which complaining about traffic should trump neighborhood revitalization, improved safety and historic heritage. It's interesting to me that Elmhurst residents aren't really piling on in support.
McCarty's attitude points to what makes this redistricting issue such an emotional and contentious one. There's a sneaking suspicion on the part of some of the public that City leaders have lost sight of the greater civic good and these day are motivated more by their own personal gain and by in-fighting.
Every civic leader struggles to balance gamesmanship with statesmanship, I think. It goes with the personality profile. I get that. I just wish, I don't know-- that they could be more skilled at hiding the gamesmanship sometimes.
This isn't a Milton Bradley board game. It's a city.
My concern and others is the naked, self-serving nature of the process despite an apparent attempt to get input from citizens. It puts into question the sincerity of the process and makes clear the council's intentions to preserve their jobs over good policy.