Fort Worth Hispanic leaders want redistricting moved up following vote

Local Hispanic leaders aren’t resting on their laurels after the recent down-to-the-wire victory in their effort to increase the number of Fort Worth City Council seats from eight to 10.

Instead, state Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, who helped in the grassroots efforts to get out the vote in the city’s charter election on May 7, is calling for discussions to start now on how to best redistrict for the new seats.

In addition to making sure minority interests are represented, Romero said an underlying concern remains: Should districts continue to have a portion of downtown and span out from there. Currently, District 6 is the only district that does not include any of downtown; it starts at Interstate 20 and stretches into far south and southwest Fort Worth.

Meanwhile, some council members who opposed Proposition 2 are mulling the idea of calling for a recount. The measure won by 181 votes, but there’s concern about a large vote swing in favor that occurred as election results were coming to a close.

In early voting, the measure was winning, but as the night went on, the proposition appeared headed for defeat, with “against” votes several hundred ahead and only one precinct still to report. In the end, according to Tarrant County elections officials, the Early Voting Ballot Board had not completed its work and roughly 1,000 mail-in votes for the charter election didn’t get added until late, and revealed along with the final vote, taking many by surprise.

Need for two districts

The point of pushing for two new council seats is to address Fort Worth’s growing population, anticipated to increase well past the 1 million mark in the next decade. Most of that expansion clearly is coming in far north, far southwest and far west Fort Worth, Romero said.

“We need to have council members who are experts in their areas,” Romero said. “On the west side with Walsh Ranch coming in, the needs are different than the south side needs, and those are different from north Fort Worth. It’s never too early to start the discussion. We have a long way to go in our city.”

The two seats won’t be added until 2023, following the 2020 Census, which will show where the city’s growth is and provide updated population demographics. Census results won’t be ready until January 2021, which is not enough time to redraw maps for the council election that year. Fort Worth votes in odd number years.

The council districts were last redrawn following the 2010 Census. The process took more than a year and was triggered because the districts saw significant growth. Each council member now represents approximately 101,000 individuals. Hispanic leaders back then pushed to have boundaries drawn to encourage election of more Hispanic council members. District 2 representative Sal Espino is the sole Hispanic councilman.

Romero said he may look into starting a petition drive to put the redistricting issue on the November ballot, asking voters to go back to the polls and say it needs to happen sooner than later. That would require 16,000 signatures, he said.

A City Charter task force recommended the later date to avoid the cost of redistricting now and again after the 2020 Census.

Vote canvass Tuesday

The City Council is scheduled to certify the vote at its meeting Tuesday night. The deadline for submitting a recount petition — which requires signatures from 25 eligible voters — is 5 p.m. Thursday to the city secretary.

The Early Voting Ballot Board on Friday finished counting ballots that would have come in from overseas. Those were due by 5 p.m. Thursday. About 79 ballots were outstanding, but none were returned, elections officials said.

Final results show Proposition 2 won by 181 votes, when 52 ballots cast in Denton County were tallied. Proposition 2 garnered 8,041 votes in favor, to 7,860 votes against. There were 210 “under votes,” or ballots where the voter may have voted on other propositions, but not on Proposition 2. Slightly more than 4 percent of Fort Worth’s registered voters voted.

Election night, the county released the early voting numbers just after 7 p.m., and everyone assumed those tallies included all the in-person and by-mail votes. The first early vote numbers was reported at just under 8,700. But in the end, 9,696 voters cast early ballots. And it was the early vote total that gave Proposition 2 the most votes.

The elections board is not obligated to get the early votes completed by the 7 p.m. release, and this case “didn’t get them all done” until about 10 p.m., said Frank Phillips, Tarrant County’s election administrator.

The late addition of the ballots is where District 3 Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman says he and some colleagues are concerned. They won’t make a decision about a recount until after Tuesday’s council meeting, he said.

“Nobody’s pulled a trigger to do anything yet,” Zimmerman said, but added, “We’re talking about it. I don’t think a recount would be beneficial to anybody, unless there is some concrete evidence of illegal activity.”

District 6 Councilman Jungus Jordan said he, too, would like an explanation on the vote.

“I have had many questions come from constituents and voters,” Jordan said. “All I want is to say, this is what happened. I’m not going to ask for a recount, but we need transparency. It’s important to explain what happened.”

A recount would require the petitioners to pay a $12,000 deposit, Phillips said. If the vote changes, the city would bear the cost of the recount, but if the count didn’t change, the petitioners would pay, he said. A final cost would be calculated.

More work to do

Despite the win, Romero said he is disappointed in the low voter turnout and feels the election was grossly under-advertised. He said he spent about $10,000 from his campaign funds to help pay for phone banks and robocalls. Volunteers also went door-to-door, he said.

“In this case, there wasn’t enough push at the city level,” said Romero, who said he left at intermission of Fort Worth Opera’s JFK at Bass Hall to watch returns from a downtown restaurant. “We did everything we could do with the limited numbers of dollars we spent.”

Likewise, Fernando Florez a leader with Fort Worth’s United Hispanics Council, said he wants to see what the options are.

“I’m very happy to say the least. It’s a great victory for us,” Florez said. “It’s been one of my goals for years. I wish we didn’t have to wait.”

The charter election was called in January following the recommendations of an 11-member task force. In all, voters considered 11 propositions. Some were technical changes to the charter, but propositions that called for increasing council and mayor terms to three years and a pay increase were voted down.

Dionne Bagsby, a former Tarrant County commissioner who chaired the task force, said she was disappointed to see some of the council members oppose Proposition 2 after their work showed the public wanted a larger council.

“The reality is, we are growing and we are more diverse,” Bagsby said. “And that’s not going to change anytime soon. People need to be represented.”

Changes at City Hall

When the time comes, space at City Hall will need reconfiguring to accommodate the two new council members and staff. Those costs are estimated at $400,000. The dais in the council chambers will need rebuilding, but a table extension already used for some large meetings held in the pre-council room will likely be permanently attached.

Budget considerations for council and staff pay, as well as for such things as supplies and travel will be figured in the budget process for fiscal 2023, said Fernando Costa, an assistant city manager.

“We’ll have seven years to take care of it,” Costa said.

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Fort Worth Hispanic leaders want redistricting moved up following vote."