Antioch City Council Continues to Discuss District Mapping, Inches Closer to Final Decision

On Tuesday night, the Antioch City Council moved a step closer towards determining potential district maps in either the 2018 or 2020 election.

Although no final decision was determined, the move to push forward Working Draft 1 and Working Draft Quadrant B came after more than 120-minutes of public comments and another 40-minutes of council discussion. The council also opted to see about a potential Working Draft Quadrant C which will be created during a Special Meeting on April 10.

The requirements of the maps must be drawn using specific criteria to comply with the state and federal constitutions, state law, and the federal Voting Rights Act. They must also meet two criteria which include equal population and complaints with the Federal Voting Rights Act.

Other districting criteria include Contiguity, Compactness and Respect for Communities of Interest (which may be neighborhoods or other areas in which people share a common interest important to the Council districts). To view all four maps, click here.

With more than 120-minutes of public comments, a majority of the comments urge Working Draft 1 due to keeping the downtown in its own district and ensuring representation. Meanwhile, others suggested Working Draft Quadrant B and that the downtown should be split up to ensure more fair representation.

During public comments, former Antioch Councilwoman Norma Hernandez was against the idea of Districts because it would pit portions of the city against one another. Antioch resident Terry Ramus expressed his opposition to the entire process but opted for the Quadrants because they force the city to work more together as one.

Antioch Planning Commissioner Ken Turnage II said voiced his support of Quadrant B as he compared the downtown area to that of a special interest because they appeared to be pitting themselves against the rest of the city.  He explained the Quadrant maps encourage the Districts to work together.

Former Mayor Don Freitas, stating he was not a fan of the idea of Districting, encouraged the council to think of the best interest of the community. He stated he didn’t like Working Draft 1 because it isolates the downtown and warned the downtown community supporters be careful what they wish for because they may get it. He explained how Quadrant B allows them to potentially have two representatives. He also encouraged the council to start the Districts in 2020.

Joy Motts disagreed with Freitas saying the downtown area is a case of the have vs. have nots. Motts stated her preference was Working Draft 1 because it kept the downtown area together while keeping the Rivertown Preservation Group together.

Council Discussion

Mayor Pro Tem Lamar Thorpe stated Tuesday that he ran on the campaign idea of moving to District, however, he didn’t like the current process they were going through saying it should have first went to the voters.

“As I maintain through this process, I have a difficult time with these quadrants, I have a difficult time with them. I get that our consultants are looking through this by population, but I go beyond that and actually look at precincts, voting patterns and how people vote in Antioch,” explained Thorpe. “So the quadrants do a disservice to the community.”

Thorpe went on to state that some of the public comments made claims that were not accurate, noting that the last person elected by Antioch in north Antioch was in the 1980’s, but stated the last person to serve from north Antioch was Martha Parsons in 2008 highlighting she did not win election.

“That will always be the case for north Antioch since Southeast Antioch has grown, the large population share of the vote is in southeast Antioch. This is no secret to people who have had a difficult time running for election in southeast Antioch,” explained Thorpe.

He further explained he wish Joy Motts was elected to the Antioch School Board but would never get elected because “people in southeast Antioch look at her as old Antioch and dismiss her” while saying people in north Antioch deserve to have their own council district.

Thorpe also argued that Districts would not create more backroom deals and rejected the idea about creating more infighting—he explained the fighting was not because of Districts, but rather personality conflicts.

“For anyone to get up here and talk about special interest and call this group (the downtown area) a special interest group, this is a community advocate group,” said Thorpe. “The real special interest groups are the ones funding our campaigns. The developers, the realtors, the unions, the members of the chambers, those are the special interests who are funding our campaigns and have had us focus on additional growth in southeast Antioch because that is the only way you can get elected in this town by being very cozy with our developer friends. Those are the special interests that exist in this city and those are the special interest that make it difficult for average citizens like the people in here to get elected to anything because if you’re not welcome or connected to those individuals, you are not going to get elected to anything.”

Thorpe argued that it was single member districts where anyone could raise enough money through your neighbors and local organizations, walk precincts, and learn from the community. He then highlighted he supported Map 1 and would not be supporting any of the quadrants saying they would not accomplish what they hoped to achieve.

Councilman Tony Tiscareno stated he was opposed to the Districting because they were forced by letter to move in this direction.  He highlighted how the complaint in the letter was based on “lack of representation” yet the arguments Tuesday night were based on geography versus cultural diversity.

“I am upset by the way that it came about and that is why I am opposed to this districting,” said Tiscareno. “I don’t know where we are going with this, I don’t like any of the maps. The reason I am against them is because I am of the full belief that we represent everybody.”

Tiscareno stated he believed the Quadrant Maps were fairer for the entire city but didn’t have a problem discussing Working Draft 1 – giving Rivertown/downtown their own voting district.  He also explained by splitting the waterfront areas into two districts that they had a better chance to achieve their goals because they had two council members they could talk with to give them two-votes instead of one-vote.

Tiscareno also encouraged waiting until the census.

“We are using numbers from 2010, that doesn’t tell you what the true population is, so these lines are being drawn doesn’t represent the true population of the city of Antioch,” said Tiscareno. “In 2020, you are going to have a better idea of what the numbers are. I don’t have a problem waiting until 2020 and seeing what the census is and then pursue the Districts. So we are telling whoever is suing us we are looking at the Districts, but we are going to wait until after the census has occurred and get good numbers and then draw the lines.”

Antioch legal advised Tiscareno the census will be conducted in 2020, but the numbers won’t out until after the November 2020 election—meaning there are two election cycles before the census is updated.

Tiscareno then proposed the extreme opposite if they were forced to go to Districts, which he believed none of the maps matter because they should be representing everyone.

“This is my other outrageous proposal, you implement whatever map is supported by the council, you start it in 2018 and you have everybody run and you straw draw the alternative district for the two and four year,” said Tiscareno. “Everybody has to run and whatever the case happens, it happens.”

Antioch legal countered by saying two of the council members are in the second years of their terms and by law could not abridge their terms—by law, they get to complete their terms.

“I state these because its outrageous,” stated Tiscareno. “There really is no win-win situation… I am willing to stay at-large at this point, but I may be the sole person willing to do that.”

Councilwoman Monica Wilson shared she was not happy how the Districts were pushed upon the council, but that she was in support of them.

“Draft Map 1 seems to be the most popular, so that is the map I am definitely going to go with,” said Wilson. “As for the second map, I am not sure, I am leaning towards Draft 2 because I would like to see the north side stay together and have that voice. One of the community members pointed out that the quadrant map splits up the Rivertown Preservation Society which has been a group in tact for many years and I would hate to see that community of interest divided.”

Wilson stated she was open on whether they move to Districts in 2018 or 2020.

Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock highlighted how moving towards Districts was going to be good in the long-run but did not like how its being forward upon them today.

Ogorchock explained how she was looking at the 2020 election in terms of a timeline, but that she had heard from a lot of people they liked the Quadrant maps.

“You look at this one map, you only have one voice for all these people, but if you look at the quandrants, you have two people and two voices for the downtown area,” explained Ogorchock. “I agree that whoever is elected in the four districts are going to listen to whoever is talking in the city, not going to listen to their quadrant or district.”

She noted that in the working group on March 10, people didn’t like the one vote downtown or one group downtown and that it was a working meeting which was how the quadrants even came up.  She further explained how the freeway has divided the town and what made it worse were the zip codes.

“It is one town and we need to work as one town, but I think we need to listen to everybody and follow our hearts,” said Ogorchock. “Communities of interest are being addressed in all of these (maps). You get two people in the downtown area that get to run and you can vote for both of them.”

Mayor Sean Wright explained how on the Antioch Unified School District, they had Diane Gibson-Gray who lives downtown and was elected.

“So they idea that you can’t win downtown or north of the freeway is just not true. It may be harder, I am not going to argue that, but the idea that you can’t win is just not true,” said Wright.

Wright questioned the maps suggesting that some of the borders should be tweaked based on communities of interest while asking if they are just going to ignore the 15,000 new residents in Southeast Antioch that were not being accounted for.

“That is really what we are going, we are looking at a population of 100,000 people in a city of 115,000 people and the growth has been Southeast Antioch,” asked Wright.

The consultant explained they had to use the 2010 census data because that is the only time every person in each household was counted.

Both Wright and Tiscareno then asked the consultant to adjust the maps in certain areas around the city to see what it would further do to maps and if there could be some compromise—siting congressional districts.

Wright suggested that the council approve a motion to move forward Working Map 1 and Quadrant B and those who want to keep tweaking the maps can also work on alignments.

City legal said they could create an ordinance that adopts a four-district system while providing two options to move to districts in either 2018 or 2020.

“All we have to do is introduce an ordinance at the next meeting,” said Derek Cole, city Attorney. “the maps don’t have to be approved until your second meeting. We can bring Number 1 back, we can bring quadrant B back and our consultant can take some of the comments that she has received here and bring back a revision at our next meeting.”

Cole suggested those who wanted to look at a new “Quadrant C” at a special meeting prior to their next meeting.

Based on Councilwoman Ogorchock being out of town, the council will hold a special meeting.

The council will meet on April 10 where they would have a workshop on the map prior to the regular city council meeting. That same night on April 10, at the 7:00 pm meeting, they would introduce the ordinance. On April 23, they would consider it the second reading and final adoption of the map.

For more information and view all four current maps, click here.