Fort Pierce changes City Commission borders for Districts 1, 2 over the objections of ACLU

FORT PIERCE — Some residents will find themselves in uncharted territory for the November election after the City Commission Monday shifted some neighborhoods from District 2 into District 1.

The redistricting, as required every 10 years by federal law, comes three weeks after The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida waved red flags, arguing the two redistricting plans proposed by the city's Tallahassee-based consultant Kurt Spitzer and Associates were unfair.

Regardless, the commission voted 4-1 to adopt one of the consultant's recommendations, which has the two districts bordered by Virginia Avenue, South 13th Street, Georgia Avenue and U.S. 1.

Commissioner Arnold Gaines cast the dissenting vote, saying he preferred the consultant's second recommendation.

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The ACLU wanted the city to consider moving fewer people from District 2 into District 1 and suggested District 1 either be bordered by Georgia Avenue, Birch Street, Nebraska Avenue and 13th Street; or moving the area bounded by Georgia Avenue, 10th Street, Ohio Avenue and U.S. 1 into District 1.

At the forefront of the ACLU's concerns were data discrepancies.

It argued the city consultant — which has been paid $22,000 over the past six months — overcounted the total population by about 100, overcounted the total white population by more than 2,600 and undercounted the total Black population by more than 1,000, according to an April 15 letter to the city.

New lines needed

Beyond legal requirements, the thousands more people in District 2 — which includes parts of Hutchinson Island — compared to District 1, primarily northwestern Fort Pierce, drives the need for a new map even further.

It’s one thing the ACLU and consultant agree on — a difference that well surpasses the legal limit.

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Contrary to cities such as Port St. Lucie, where City Council members are elected at-large, Fort Pierce has had single-member City Commission districts for nearly three decades, the a result of a court mandate that’s still in effect.

In 1993, the Black community, represented by the ACLU and by Florida Rural Legal Services, claimed that at-large elections violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the U.S. Constitution.

And they won.

ACLU challenges Fort Pierce

Consultants maintain there's nothing wrong with their data, despite not following Department of Justice guidelines for how race should be counted in the redistricting process as the ACLU did.

The guidelines — which are not legally binding — state racial minorities should be counted as a single race or in combination with another race.

Non-Hispanic white alone is the preferred category for counting white residents, according to the guidelines.

The consultant, however, included only people who identified solely as white, Black or "other" in their estimates.

Regardless, it's not an issue, according to Spitzer.

"We've done a number of these projects around Florida, but none of them, zero, have ever been challenged because we only use single-race data," he previously told TCPalm.

Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at olivia.mckelvey@tcpalm.com, 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Fort Pierce approves new City commission borders for Districts 1, 2