Monroe County Commission’s district lines are slightly shifting due to new census data that shows more people living in the Keys and a state law requiring a redistricting every 10 years.
Per the latest maps, district 2 in the Lower Keys and district 3 in Key West would add voters. Shifts in voter population are also seen in district 1 in Key West, district 4 in Islamorada and district 5 in Tavernier.
Monroe County Commissioners were unanimous in their approval of new, preliminary maps at the Oct. 20 meeting in Marathon. The 2020 census brought the Keys’ population to 82,847 as of April 2020. That’s an increase of 9,757 people from the 2010 census.
County Attorney Bob Shillinger said census data usually comes in mid-year, but this time it came on Oct. 4. By the next day, Oct. 5, planning staff had draft maps ready in time to meet the Oct. 5 deadline for inclusion on the Oct. 20 agenda.
The Florida Constitution requires counties to redistrict county commission districts after each decennial census. The state Legislature mandates that the process happen in an odd-numbered year to allow the setting of new districts before the next election cycle.
With the new data, the five districts should be around 16,569 people per district. The law requires that districts be contiguous, keep census blocks intact, and have less than a 10 percent deviation between the largest and smallest districts. The greatest deviation in population on the accepted maps is 3.29%.
District 3, currently held by County Commissioner Eddie Martinez, is the smallest per latest census. Key areas from District 1, represented by Craig Cates, that Martinez’s district would pick up under the new redistricting proposal include Key West High School and Key West By the Sea Association on South Roosevelt Boulevard. The district would also add some northside sections from Sunset Drive to 17th Street. Proposed district boundary shifts would give District 3 an additional 811 people.
A proposed shift in boundaries would see people moved from District 2, represented by Mayor Michelle Coldiron, to Cates’ district 1. Shillinger said Coldiron’s district 2 has Rockland and Boca Chica Keys, and that it was drawn that way 10 years ago to balance districts. With population shifting, areas south of U.S. 1 on Boca Chica and Rockland will go to district 1.
Some 800 people would move from district 4, represented by David Rice and spanning from Marathon to Islamorada, to Coldiron’s district 2. Specifically, Coldiron would pick up north sections from 64th to 106th streets. A final proposed shift would see 169 people moving from district 5, represented by Holly Raschein and spanning from Key Largo to upper parts of Plantation Key in Islamorada and a sliver of Tavernier, to district 4.
“It is impossible for any redistricting plan to attain 100 percent compliance with every guideline,” Shillinger said. “Our staff balances the individual criteria with each other using population as the dominant criteria.”
Coldiron inquired about the county’s current, yet confusing district sequencing and if there was any way to fix that. District 3 represented by Martinez includes the west part of Key West, while Cates’ district 1 contains the east part of Key West, as well as Stock Island and Key Haven. As for district 2, it starts around Boca Chica heading north.
Shillinger said the numbers run west to east, meaning district 3 is the southernmost area, followed by districts 1, 2, 4 and 5.
“Tom Hambright (or) maybe somebody who’s been around for a long time can understand how we got to those numbers. They predated me,” Shillinger said. “There’s no easy way to resequence them completely.”
Shillinger added that state law has district 1, 3 and 5 running during presidential election years and district 2 and 4 running during gubernatorial years.
“Unless we had planned vacancies on the board, we’d be cutting out existing commissioners, basically saying these are the new maps, you don’t live in your district (and) forcing you to vacate your seat or move mid-term. That seems to be a lot of effort just to get numbers to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
“We’re not trying to fix the problem right now,” he continued. “We see it. Someday if we go to charter, maybe that would be the time to get that little issue right.”
Final adoption of the proposed maps will take place at the Dec. 8 board of county commissioner’s meeting at the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo. The process is required to be completed by Dec. 31.
