The Riviera Beach City Council voted unanimously Wednesday, May 15, to advance a trio of maps that would change district lines for the first time in 45 years.
The new district maps will be the subject of a pair of community meetings that will be held in advance of June 5, when council members will decide on a new map.
Reapportionment — the process of updating district lines known as redistricting — is, for people not interested in politics, typically as exciting as watching paint dry. But the process is important, particularly for elected officials who could face the prospect of having to move or give up their seat, depending on the new boundaries.
The topic is of such importance that council member Tradrick McCoy filed suit against the city in March 2022, alleging that City Manager Jonathan Evans had failed to follow the city charter's requirement that redistricting occur every 10 years.
McCoy represents District 1, the most populous district in the city, a reality that greatly increases the number of people who can file to run against him and the number of constituents who expect him to be responsive to them.
Evans, who did not comment directly on the lawsuit, said he has sought direction from City Council on the issue.
In Riviera Beach, council members must live in the district from which he or she filed to run for office, though voters throughout the city vote on their candidacy. They have to have lived in the district for a year before they can run.
The city's charter dictates that redistricting occur every 10 years, but that has not happened since the city's district lines were updated in 1979, according to a consultant the city hired to help it oversee the process.
In Riviera Beach, district populations are not equal in population
District populations are supposed to be as equal in population as possible. That's not the case in Riviera Beach.
"Your districts are heavily out of balance," said James Gammack-Clark, an geosciences instructor at Florida Atlantic University and part of the three-person team of consultants working with the city.
District 1, in the northwestern area of the city between Silver Beach Road and West Blue Heron Boulevard, has 17,261 residents, according to the consultant's analysis, which uses U.S. Census Bureau figures and housing unit estimates.
District 2, represented by KaShamba Miller-Anderson, is a V-shaped chunk of the city that lies west and south of Disrrict 1. It has 7,229 residents.
District 3, represented by Shirley Lanier, lies directly south of District 1 and has 10,796 residents. And Singer Island accounts for District 4, which is represented by Glen Spiritis and has 4,579 residents, according to the consultants.
Each of the three proposed maps would expand District 4 westward to increase its population as a means of evening out the populations of each district.
Based on the consultants' estimated Riviera Beach population of 39,865, each of the city's four districts should have just under 10,000 residents.
Spiritis disputed the consultants' population estimate for District 4, arguing that the many part-time residents who have property on Singer Island should be taken into account as the city considers new district populations and lines.
"Those people live here part-time, although they're paying taxes full-time during the year," Spiritis said. "We can't just discount these people. They live here. They pay taxes here. We represent them. And to just ignore them is ridiculous."
The city's lead consultant, Florida Atlantic University Geosciences Professor Emeritus Ronald Shultz, said the federal government requires citizens to pick a single place as their permanent residence.
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Spiritis said he understands that requirement and is fine with having a person's permanent residence dictate how they are counted for purposes of voting in federal and state elections. But he argued that Riviera Beach's charter does not spell out that only permanent residents be counted for purposes of local redistricting.
McCoy later raised questions about the prospect of nonpermanent residents being counted in Riviera Beach for purposes of drawing district lines.
Such residents could not vote for local officials at their place of permanent residence and also vote in Riviera Beach city elections.
Riviera Beach Council debated on whether to postpone the redistricting decision
As the debate moved past two hours, City Council members explored the idea of postponing a decision on any of the proposed maps.
Evans, however, reminded them that, if a map was approved after June 5, it could not go into effect until 2026, nearly a year after the next set of municipal elections in March. If a new map is approved at the June 5 meeting, it would go into effect immediately, Shultz said.
Lanier said residents had not had enough of an opportunity to weigh in on the proposed maps and urged her colleagues to get more input before making a final decision.
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McCoy suggested the council advance all three maps. Lanier asked the staff to hold two public meetings on the maps before June 5, and Evans requested permission to pay the consultant up to $10,000 for additional work that might be necessary after hearing from the public.
The City Council then voted unanimously on a motion that incorporated each of those suggestions.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
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