Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 09-16-08 workshop agenda — reading text

potential to assure representation of minority populations and because technological developments now allow a computerized voting and counting system, thus eliminating the major objection to PR. 40 d The single transferable vote method allows voters to rank candidates in a multi- member district by preference. The method depends on creation of a winning threshold —a share of votes that each council member must receive to be elected. Election officials determine the threshold after all votes are counted, using a formula to determine the fewest number of votes that only the winning number of candidates can receive. In Cambridge, for example, officials divide the total number of valid ballots cast by the number of positions to be elected plus one. Under this approach, in an election for nine council seats where voters cast 15, 000 valid ballots, the winning threshold is 1, 501, or 15, 000 divided by ten, plus one. Ten candidates theoretically could receive 1, 500 votes, but only nine can obtain 1, 501. Once a particular candidate receives the designated threshold of first choices, ballot counters redistribute any surplus votes for that candidate to another candidate based upon the voter' s preferential ranking. Cambridge redistributes some ballots at full value, but modern technology now allows a more precise redistribution of the calculated share of every ballot at an equally reduced value. After all surplus votes are redistributed, the weakest candidate is eliminated, and ballots from that candidate are counted for the next choice candidate on those voters' ballots. This process of redistributing votes from winning candidates and weak candidates continues until the necessary number of candidates have reached the threshold, or only nine candidates remain. In Cambridge, this has consistently led to ninety percent of voters helping to elect a candidate, more than sixty -five percent of voters having their first choice candidate win, and more than ninety -five percent of voters seeing one of their top three choices win. The PR alternative assumes that the mayor will be elected by and from the council and thus calls for an odd -number of council members. If PR is used in conjunction with a separately elected mayor who serves on the council, there should be an even number of council members elected by PR. investigate semi - When considering the PR alternative, charter reviewers may also wish to proportional representation systems —the limited vote and cumulative vote —which have been adopted in more than 75 localities since 1985 to settle voting rights cases, including in Peoria ( IL), Amarillo ( TX), and Chilton County ( AL). While more uneven in their results than PR, these systems increase minorities' access to representation and may boost turnout. More information about the mechanics of PR can be obtained from the Center for Voting and Democracy, www. fairvote.org. Another relatively new voting procedure that incorporates the transferable vote method is the instant runoff. It can be used in single member districts or single office elections, such as the mayor' s office. Instant runoff voting eliminates the need for costly runoff elections and the typical drop -off in turnout in runoffs. Voters rank candidates for a single office; if no candidate wins a majority of votes, election officials remove the candidate with the fewest first -place votes and redistribute those votes to other candidates based upon their second -place designations until one candidate achieves a majority. This ensures that a vote cast for a voter' s favorite candidate does not potentially contribute to the election of that voter' s least favorite candidate. It also means that the victor has a credible claim of majority support without recourse to a runoff. In 2002, San Francisco became the first district major U. S. city to adopt instant runoff voting to elect its mayor, board of supervisors, attorney, city attorney, treasurer, sheriff assessor -recorder and public defender. The disadvantage is that voters may have difficulty sorting out the candidates in a large field of contenders and cannot 41 rely on the runoff campaign to learn in more detail how the two remaining contenders differ in their characteristics and positions. Section 6. 02. Council Districts; Adjustment of Districts ( for use with Alternatives II, III and IV of § 6. 03). a) Number of Districts. There shall be city council districts. Commission; Composition; Appointment; Terms; Vacancies; b) Districting Compensation. 1) There shall be a districting commission consisting of five members. No more than two commission members may belong to the same political party. The city council shall appoint four members. These four members shall, with the affirmative vote of at least three, choose the fifth member who shall be chair- man. 2) No member of the commission shall be employed by the city or hold any other elected or appointed position in the city. 3) The city council shall appoint the commission no later than one year and five months before the first general election of the city council after each federal decennial census. The commissions term shall end upon adoption of a dis- tricting plan, as set forth in § 6. 02( c). 4) In the event of a vacancy on the commission by death, resignation or other- wise, the city council shall appoint a new member enrolled in the same politi- cal party from which his or her predecessor was selected to serve the balance of the term remaining. 5) No member of the districting commission shall be removed from office by the city council except for cause and upon notice and hearing. 6) The members of the commission shall serve without compensation except that each member shall be allowed actual and necessary expenses to be audited in the same manner as other city charges. 7) The commission may hire or contract for necessary staff assistance and may require agencies of city government to provide technical assistance. The com- mission shall have a budget as provided by the city council. c) Powers and Duties of the Commission; Hearings, Submissions and Approval of Plan. 1) Following each decennial census, the commission shall consult the city coun- cil and shall prepare a plan for dividing the city into districts for the election of council members. In preparing the plan, the commission shall be guided by the criteria set forth in § 6. 02( d). The report on the plan shall include a map and description of districts recommended. 2) The commission shall hold one or more public hearings not less than one month before it submits the plan to the city council. The commission shall 42 i  make its plan available to the public for inspection and comment not less than one month before its public hearing. 3) The commission shall submit its plan to the city council not less than one year before the first general election of the city council after each decennial census. 4) The plan shall be deemed adopted by the city council unless disapproved within three weeks by the vote of the majority of all members of the city council. If the city council fails to adopt the plan, it shall return the plan to the commission with its objections and with the objections of individual members of the council. 5) Upon rejection of its plan, the commission shall prepare a revised plan and shall submit such revised plan to the city council no later than nine months before the first general election of the city council after the decennial census. Such revised plan shall be deemed adopted by the city council unless disapproved within two weeks by the vote of two- thirds of all of the members of the city council and unless, by a vote of two- thirds of all of its members, the city council votes to file a petition in the Court, County, for a determination that the plan fails to meet the requirements of this charter. The city council shall file its petition no later than ten days after its disapproval of the plan. Upon a final determination upon appeal, if any, that the plan meets the requirements of this charter, the plan shall be deemed adopted by the city council and the commission shall deliver the plan to the city clerk. The plan delivered to the city clerk shall include a map and description of the districts. 6) If in any year population figures are not available at least one year and five months before the first general election following the decennial census, the city council may, by local law, shorten the time periods provided for districting commission action in paragraphs ( 2), ( 3), ( 4), and ( 5) of this subsection. d) Districting Plan; Criteria. In preparation of its plan for dividing the city into districts for the election of council members, the commission shall apply the following criteria which, to the extent practicable, shall be applied and given priority in the order in which they are herein set forth. 1) Districts shall be equal in population except where deviations from equality result from the application of the provisions hereinafter set forth, but no such deviation may exceed five percent of the average population for all city council districts according to the figures available from the most recent census. 2) Districts shall consist of contiguous territory; but land areas separated by waterways shall not be included in the same district unless said waterways are traversed by highway bridges, tunnels regularly scheduled ferry or services both termini of which are within the district, except that, population permitting, islands not connected to the mainland or to other islands by 43  bridge, tunnel or regular ferry services shall be included in the same district as the nearest land area within the city and, where such subdivisions exist, within the same ward or equivalent subdivision as described in paragraph ( 5) below. 3) In cities whose territory encompasses more than one county or portions of more than one county, the number of districts, which include territory in more than one county, shall