Commission okays new districts

County commissioners say it's not a perfect plan, but the redrawn voting districts created by a consultant are the best option.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

CLEARWATER -- It may not be pretty, but it's ours.

A redistricting proposal that carves Pinellas County into four jagged-edge single-member voting districts and three at-large districts was approved unanimously Tuesday night by the County Commission.

Fifteen people spoke during the public hearing at the County Courthouse in Clearwater. Several drew their own redistricting maps that they asked the commission to consider. But commissioners said the plan created by Tallahassee consultant Kurt Spitzer was the best option.

"I think the only thing I've heard that we could all agree on is, we do not have a perfect plan," said Commissioner Bob Stewart. "I think the other thing we'd all agree on is we're not going to be able to please everyone."

Voters narrowly approved a Nov. 2 referendum expanding the County Commission from five members elected countywide to seven members, three elected countywide and four elected from single-member districts.

The commission hired Spitzer to come up with boundaries for those districts, which needed to be fairly equal in population. Spitzer tried to elicit public opinion, but, for the most part, residents ignored the issue. Fewer than 90 attended the four public hearings Spitzer held in January.

Even those who criticized the maps Tuesday night had relatively minor complaints.

Residents of Countryside did not like how the plan split them between single-member districts 4 and 5.

"One of your goals was to avoid dividing communities of interest," said Bill Jonson, president of the Countryside Northridge Homeowners Association.

Clearwater residents Don and Lucile Casey were unhappy that their neighborhood, Del Oro Groves, was drawn outside of District 5, which includes most of Clearwater and Largo.

"We do not wish to be singled out as dangling participles, which is what we are on this map," said Lucile Casey, pointing to her community, which is now in the southeast corner of District 4.

"We're concerned because we've been a long-established Clearwater neighborhood, and now we're going to be represented by someone up in Tarpon Springs."

Residents of unincorporated areas around Seminole, Largo and Kenneth City also objected to being divided into three single member districts.

"The unincorporated area is a community in its own right," said Charles Fleer, who lives in unincorporated Seminole. "What has happened here ... is you have fragmented that community."

Commissioner Sallie Parks urged those residents to consider the benefits of having more than one single-member district commissioner representing them.

"I know it's less than perfect for all of us," Parks said of the plan. "But it's about as good as we're going to get."

The plan received praise from residents of south St. Petersburg, who gain a minority-influenced district in District 7, which is 21 percent African American. North Pinellas residents who wanted the unincorporated communities of Palm Harbor and East Lake kept together also left Tuesday's meeting happy.

"I know you can't make everybody happy, but at least you made people up in the northern unincorporated area happy," said Palm Harbor resident Scott Fisher.

Voters will elect commissioners to all four single member seats and to at-large seat 3 in November. The lines likely will be redrawn after April 2001 when new census figures are available.

Residents unhappy with the current plan are counting on that.

"They'll hear from us again," Don Casey said.

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