There is an old saying that “the past is prologue”. What has happened in the past is likely to happen again because most people don’t remember what happened in the past.
During the 1970’s, the City of Houston was sued because its all At-Large city council election system violated the voting rights of African-American and Hispanic Houstonians. To settle the lawsuit, the City agreed to go to a “mixed”system of single member city council districts and At-Large city council seats.
As a part of the settlement of the voting rights violation lawsuit, a provision was added to the Houston City Charter in 1979 (Article V, Section 2) that required the city to add two new District Council seats when its population reached 2.1 million people.
The 1979 City Charter provision also states:
In each year during which a City General Election is to be held, the City Council shall conduct an investigation and determine the population of each of the districts from which District Council Members are to be elected. Each such determination shall be based upon the best available data, including but not limited to, the most recent federal census.
On February 13, 2007, the Planning Director of the City of Houston sent Mayor Bill White a memo that said the city’s population exceeded 2.1 million (was 2,231,339) based on her office’s estimate using the same process used by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Notwithstanding the Planning Department’s determination that the city’s population has exceeded 2.1 million people, Mayor White has refused to allow City Council members to comply with the 1979 City Charter provision to add two new District City Council seats for this year’s city election. Mayor White has said that he will not begin preparations to comply with the 1979 City Charter provision until 2010. (Mayor White will leave office in the first week of January 2010 because of the City’s term limit requirement.)That means that the voting rights of African-Americans, Hispanic and Asian American Houstonians will be violated by the City for four years (2008-2011) unnecessarily.
Mayor White is refusing to comply with the 1979 City Charter provision based solely on the opinion of the City Attorney as opposed to a decision from the Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department or a specific determination from a federal court that the 1979 City Charter requirement violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Neither the Justice Department nor the United States Supreme Court has ever said that the 1979 City Charter provision requiring the creation of two new District City Council seats was illegal.
Instead of fighting to protect the voting rights of all Houstonians, the City of Houston is once again undercutting the voting rights of African-American, Hispanic and Asian Houstonians. Combined, Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and other people of color are now 69% of the total population of Houston. The 1979 City Charter provision was specifically added to the Charter in anticipation of this growth. It was intended to comply with the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Baker v. Carr and the Federal Voting Rights Act. Both protect minority voters against the dilution of their voting strength.
By refusing to add the two new District City Council seats, the city is diluting the voting strength of minority voters in Houston.
Instead of refusing to comply with the 1979 City Charter provision based solely on the opinion of the City Attorney, Mayor White and the City Council should seek an opinion from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department or the federal District Court in Washington, D.C. as to its legality.
On an issue as fundamentally important as protecting the Voting Rights of Houstonians, Mayor White and City Council should do more than simply rely on an opinion from the City Attorney. They should go the extra mile to protect the voting rights of all Houstonians.
Robinson is Associate Dean of External Affairs and an Assistant Professor at Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs. He has taught Constitutional Law at the South Texas College of Law. He is a former At-Large member of the Houston City Council.
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