Redistricting Could Divide Sun City

September 16, 2011

In November 2000, Arizona voters passed Proposition 106, an initiative that amended the Arizona Constitution by removing the power to draw congressional and state legislative districts from the state legislature and reassigning this task to the newly created Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC). Redistricting is the redrawing of legislative and congressional district lines following the decennial U.S. Census. The lines are redrawn so that districts are of very nearly equal population as required by the Arizona and United States Constitutions. As a result of Prop 106, the Arizona Constitution mandates that redistricting begin with a grid map. This is to ensure that each IRC starts from scratch, therefore, not considering previous district boundaries. In the initial grid map, Sun City has been divided, putting north of Grand Avenue in one district and south of Grand Avenue in another. In drafting the new district maps, commissioners must modify the grid maps to account for the following criteria:

• Equal population;
• Compactness and contiguousness;
• Compliance with the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act;
• Respect for communities of interest;
• Incorporation of visible geographic features, including city, town and county boundaries, as well as undivided census tracts; and
• Creation of competitive districts where there is no significant detriment to other goals.

Currently, all of Sun City is within District 9 and it should remain such as that meets the criteria to respect communities of interest. The commissioners of the IRC should be made aware of how important it is that our retirement community, Sun City, remain in the same district and not divided!

Secondly, based on the initial grid, Representative Debbie Lesko would no longer live in our legislative district. As you know, Debbie has been a real friend to Sun City and is involved regularly and year round. Debbie doesn’t just come around when an election is coming up, she’s always here for us and understands Sun City. Loosing Debbie’s representation would be a significant loss to Sun City.

Please contact the IRC and make the following recommendations for district #9 boundaries:

• 51st Avenue on the east because it is a good boundary line that separates Glendale and Phoenix and also maintains the Peoria school district;
• Aqua Fria River on the west because it is a natural boundary line between District 9 and District 4;
• Beardsley Road on the north because that is the boundary line for the Sun City community, which should remain all in one district and would include Westbrook, also a retirement community of similar interest who use the same shopping amenities and is currently in legislative district #4 which needs to reduce its population; and
• Northern Avenue on the south because this includes all of the Sun City community to the south which is important that Sun City not be divided in order to respect communities of interest and Sun City and south Peoria should be kept together because Sun City residents primarily go to Peoria for additional shopping and entertainment.

A map outlining this suggested legislative district #9 is included below or can be obtained by emailing rcsc@sunaz.com to be included in your comment outlining the above recommended area for legislative district #9. Please make your public comment at the IRC website today!

Additionally, please send another email to the IRC, as this is also extremely important to Sun City. Proposition 106, which the people of Arizona passed to have a non-partisan commission draw the lines, is being rewritten by the current commissioners. The attempt is to prioritize “competitiveness” as the most important requirement. Currently the demand to make the creation of competitive districts a priority has a four to one lead over the demand for the other criteria. This would be very detrimental to Sun City, as it would take precedence over the requirement to have respect for communities of interest, which supports Sun City not being divided. If the commissioners do not hear from you, they will believe that “competitiveness” is the most important to you too. Please make your additional public comment at the IRC website as soon as possible. Thank you!