Parsons-Letter(1) — original pdf
Backup
Rodriguez, Lisa From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: HPD ICRC Commissioners Wednesday, August 25, 2021 7:54 AM HPD ICRC Commissionsers DL FW: Parsons Letter to 10-1 Commissioners (w/attachments) (1 of 2) Parsons ICRC Letter 08-24-21.pdf From: Dugan, Matthew <Matthew.Dugan@austintexas.gov> Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2021 12:54:18 PM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik To: HPD ICRC Commissioners <ICRC.Commissioners@austintexas.gov> Subject: FW: Parsons Letter to 10-1 Commissioners (w/attachments) (1 of 2) > From: Brad Parsons Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 9:15 PM To: Puentes, Christina ‐ BC <BC‐Christina.Puentes@austintexas.gov>; Gonzalez, Luis ‐ BC <BC‐ Luis.Gonzalez@austintexas.gov>; Lands, Sterling ‐ BC <BC‐Sterling.Lands@austintexas.gov>; Le, Hoang ‐ BC <BC‐ Hoang.Le@austintexas.gov>; Blank, Joshua ‐ BC <BC‐Joshua.Blank@austintexas.gov>; Hardin, Errol ‐ BC <BC‐ Errol.Hardin@austintexas.gov>; Yee, Selina ‐ BC <BC‐Selina.Yee@austintexas.gov>; Kambo, Shaina ‐ BC <BC‐ Shaina.Kambo@austintexas.gov>; Kannan, Prabhu ‐ BC <BC‐Prabhu.Kannan@austintexas.gov>; bc‐ brigham.morris@austintexas.gov; Dempsey, Erin ‐ BC <BC‐Erin.Dempsey@austintexas.gov>; Falcon, Camellia ‐ BC <BC‐ Camellia.Falcon@austintexas.gov>; Schneider, Eugene ‐ BC <BC‐Eugene.Schneider@austintexas.gov>; bc‐sara.ines‐ calderon@austintexas.gov; bc‐sara.inescalderon@austintexas.gov Cc: Dugan, Matthew <Matthew.Dugan@austintexas.gov> Subject: Parsons Letter to 10‐1 Commissioners (w/attachments) (1 of 2) *** External Email - Exercise Caution *** (See attachments) Tuesday, August 24, 2021 Greetings ICRC Commissioners! I noticed the video of your last meeting just posted on the City webpage, day before yesterday. Particularly, what stood out to me is that Mr. Korbel is going to draft your map and then take feedback from you all as a group and then individually after he has drafted the 10 districts map and before that Preliminary Map is released for public comment in the middle of September. 1 I had assumed like the last 10-1 Commission that you all would be having an open public meeting with your mapper and giving him direction on the layout of the map, as he drew it, as opposed to delegating the drafting of the 10 district map to your mapper and then give him feedback on that afterward. I had thought that you all might have watched the videos of the days when the last 10-1 Commission worked with their mapper to draw both their Preliminary map and their Final map, but just now checking, I see that the City of Austin has taken down those ATXN videos showing the mapper working with the last 10-1 Commission at AE’s Town Lake Center and One Texas Center. See: 1. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=198360 2. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=197729 3. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=200533 4. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=200802 and 5. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=203067 . If this is to be the case, then I think you should give some detailed direction to Mr. Korbel before he starts his drafting of the Preliminary map and later in October on the Final map. Toward that end, in looking at the City Demographer’s last powerpoint to you all on the 2020 Census, there are some key points that stick out to me. First, are the new percentages of Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, and others in the City of Austin population. The raw number of Blacks in Austin has actually increased, but as a % of the total it has decreased to 6.9%, still though a Black Opportunity District (1) should be drawn by Mr. Korbel. The Hispanics have decreased in Austin as a %, but they still merit (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts. ** Most impressive, Asians have increased from 6.2% to 8.9% of Austin, and a significant portion of them live in NW to North Austin. They are about 9% of Austin, more than Blacks, and I believe you all should task Mr. Korbel with evaluating and including an Asian Opportunity District in his Preliminary map if he wasn’t planning on doing so already. Have outlined in red a general area that could be the basis of an Asian Opportunity District, extending that further to the east could incorporate Asians up to the required total district population. (See attached) ** Am also including outlined in red, central focal points that could be the logical basis of (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts. (See attached) And lastly, outlined in red a general area that could be the logical basis of the (1) Black Opportunity District. (See attached) I will conclude with one point that concerns me. When those of use who voluntarily petitioned hard to get 10-1 on the ballot and passed it, I don’t think many of us thought at that time that ultimately the 10-1 Commissioners might be delegating the initial creative district mapping to a lone unnamed lawyer. If you should do that, I think it is entirely appropriate for that lawyer/mapper to only interact with you the Commissioners and not be subject to outside lobbying. I can name a handful of City Hall lobbyists in Austin who would like to, might have already attempted to influence Mr. Korbel now that they see he is going to be solely initiating the drafting of both the Preliminary and possibly Final map for you all. You might consider having Mr. Korbel sign an NDA or similar 2 agreement with you all to only interact with the Commissioners on the 10-1 mapping process from this point forward. Just to repeat, the most important idea in this letter is that you the 10-1 Commission should give Mr. Korbel some detailed direction as to what you want to see in the Preliminary map, since he will be drafting it on his own. The new Census numbers and law do back up your requesting that Mr. Korbel give his best effort at drafting: (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts, (1) Black Opportunity District, AND (1) Asian Opportunity District, along with the (5) other districts, in the Preliminary map, in addition to Mr. Korbel using the 10-1 Charter language to influence the priority of his map drafting. Since your meeting tomorrow in on Zoom only, I probably won’t speak, without the graphics in this letter. Instead, let this letter represent what I would have liked to have said in person with the overhead graphics. Please share these graphics with Mr. Korbel since I am not sure whether he will have reviewed mine and others input at your first public meetings before he was hired. Thank you, and thanks for volunteering for this in these difficult times. Brad Parsons Austin, TX P.S. Matt, if this does not make it directly to the Commissioners, please forward to the Commissioners. CAUTION: This email was received at the City of Austin, from an EXTERNAL source. Please use caution when clicking links or opening attachments. If you believe this to be a malicious and/or phishing email, please forward this email to cybersecurity@austintexas.gov. 3 Tuesday, August 24, 2021, p.1 Greetings ICRC Commissioners! I noticed the video of your last meeting just posted on the City webpage, day before yesterday. Particularly, what stood out to me is that Mr. Korbel is going to draft your map and then take feedback from you all as a group and then individually after he has drafted the 10 districts map and before that Preliminary Map is released for public comment in the middle of September. I had assumed like the last 10-1 Commission that you all would be having an open public meeting with your mapper and giving him direction on the layout of the map, as he drew it, as opposed to delegating the drafting of the 10 district map to your mapper and then give him feedback on that afterward. I had thought that you all might have watched the videos of the days when the last 10-1 Commission worked with their mapper to draw both their Preliminary map and their Final map, but just now checking, I see that the City of Austin has taken down those ATXN videos showing the mapper working with the last 10-1 Commission at AE’s Town Lake Center and One Texas Center. See: 1. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=198360 2. http:// www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=197729 3. http://www.austintexas.gov/ edims/document.cfm?id=200533 4. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm? id=200802 and 5. http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=203067 . If this is to be the case, then I think you should give some detailed direction to Mr. Korbel before he starts his drafting of the Preliminary map and later in October on the Final map. Toward that end, in looking at the City Demographer’s last powerpoint to you all on the 2020 Census, there are some key points that stick out to me. First, are the new percentages of Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, and others in the City of Austin population. The raw number of Blacks in Austin has actually increased, but as a % of the total it has decreased to 6.9%, still though a Black Opportunity District (1) should be drawn by Mr. Korbel. The Hispanics have decreased in Austin as a %, but they still merit (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts. Tuesday, August 24, 2021, p.2 ** Most impressive, Asians have increased from 6.2% to 8.9% of Austin, and a significant portion of them live in NW to North Austin. They are about 9% of Austin, more than Blacks, and I believe you all should task Mr. Korbel with evaluating and including an Asian Opportunity District in his Preliminary map if he wasn’t planning on doing so already. Have outlined in red a general area that could be the basis of an Asian Opportunity District, extending that further to the east could incorporate Asians up to the required total district population. (See below) ** Am also including outlined in red, central focal points that could be the logical basis of (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts. (See below) Tuesday, August 24, 2021, p.3 And lastly, outlined in red a general area that could be the logical basis of the (1) Black Opportunity District. (See below) Tuesday, August 24, 2021, p.4 I will conclude with one point that concerns me. When those of use who voluntarily petitioned hard to get 10-1 on the ballot and passed it, I don’t think many of us thought at that time that ultimately the 10-1 Commissioners might be delegating the initial creative district mapping to a lone unnamed lawyer. If you should do that, I think it is entirely appropriate for that lawyer/mapper to only interact with you the Commissioners and not be subject to outside lobbying. I can name a handful of City Hall lobbyists in Austin who would like to, might have already attempted to influence Mr. Korbel now that they see he is going to be solely initiating the drafting of both the Preliminary and possibly Final map for you all. You might consider having Mr. Korbel sign an NDA or similar agreement with you all to only interact with the Commissioners on the 10-1 mapping process from this point forward. Just to repeat, the most important idea in this letter is that you the 10-1 Commission should give Mr. Korbel some detailed direction as to what you want to see in the Preliminary map, since he will be drafting it on his own. The new Census numbers and law do back up your requesting that Mr. Korbel give his best effort at drafting: (3) Hispanic Opportunity Districts, (1) Black Opportunity District, AND (1) Asian Opportunity District, along with the (5) other districts, in the Preliminary map, in addition to Mr. Korbel using the 10-1 Charter language to influence the priority of his map drafting. Since your meeting tomorrow in on Zoom only, I probably won’t speak, without the graphics in this letter. Instead, let this letter represent what I would have liked to have said in person with the overhead graphics. Please share these graphics with Mr. Korbel since I am not sure whether he will have reviewed mine and others input at your first public meetings before he was hired. Thank you, and thanks for volunteering for this in these difficult times. Brad Parsons