What has Miguel DeGrandy been doing on the County Charter Review Task Force. By Geniusofdespair

My question: What constitues a minority now...is it numbers? 18.6% of the population in the county is white non Hispanic. 60.6% of the population is Hispanic and 20.5% is black. I wish someone would challenge the make up of the commission in court. It is certainly not representative of the community with 4 black commissioners, 2 white and 7 Hispanic. I really thought what Lobbyist DeGrandy (Natacha Seijas's appointment) said at the meeting was very funny --- I would suppose it was a joke because it is soooo untrue:

"Mr. De Grandy also noted that the unintended consequences of changing to a countywide format, whether hybrid or total, was to exclude many qualified candidates from running."

You have got to be kidding Miguel. With you lobbyists raising half a million for incumbents, no one has a chance against them. That is what excludes qualified candidates: Lack of money (I wrote about that yesterday).

This is from the draft minutes of the Sept. 19th meeting -- so sadly, don't expect any changes to the composition of the County Commission unless there is a lawsuit (which I would throw some money at - see my post Shaw vs. Reno discusssion at Sept. 5th Charter Reveiw meeting.):

“Mr. De Grandy spoke in opposition to changing the current composition of the County Commission and addressed the issues of judging whether parochialism was good or bad, the law of unintended consequences, and violation of the voting rights act. He noted that the tension on the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) between advocates of parochial and regional issues was a healthy balance. Mr. De Grandy also noted that the unintended consequences of changing to a countywide format, whether hybrid or total, was to exclude many qualified candidates from running. Lastly, he noted that in this community, with the polarized voting patterns that existed, district elections were the appropriate election mechanism. A hybrid system, Mr. De Grandy said, he believed would have the effect of diluting existing minority strength and violate the Voting Rights Act in this community.

It was moved by Mr. De Grandy that the Task Force recommend to the County Commission that the current system of electing commissioners by districts be retained.
This motion was seconded by Mr. Vasquez.

Mr. Greenberg offered friendly amendments to the pending motion regarding countywide incorporation, addressing the powers of the BCC by revisiting the Charter, and creating an independent body to redraw the districts.

Mr. De Grandy noted he could not accept the amendments at this time.

The Task Force proceeded to vote upon the pending motion, which passed by a vote of 17 to 1 (Mr. Greenberg voted “No”) (Mayor Diaz-Padron, Mayor Ferre, and Mayor Martinez were absent)."