Email sent to CRC - FW For CRC meeting April 24 (* 26)Good Morning, CRC Members,
Please review Mr. Hoffmann’s comments below.
Thank you,
Donna L. Bartle
City Clerk
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247-5809
From: michaelhoffmann@comcast.net [mailto:michaelhoffmann@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 10:34 PM
To: Bartle, Donna <dbartle@coab.us>; michaelhoffmann michaelhoffmann <michaelhoffmann@comcast.net>
Subject: For CRC meeting, April 24
CONTINUING MY COMMENTS BEGUN AT THE FIRST CRC MEETING
At that first meeting I tried to do two things: raise the subject of vote dilution and show historically how that played out on the west side of town.
A -- VOTE DILUTION
[cid:e7f688f20ae9438194dfdaeffa8d12cb@open-xchange.com]
The above maps show a 2022 gerrymander by Gov. Ron DeSantis that "cracked" a voting district (#5) that previously was a minority-access seat and elected Black Congress members Corinne
Brown and Al Lawson. DeSantis divided the Black voters into four newly created districts (#2, 3,4,5) that had white majorities. White GOP candidates won all four districts. Thus, the
Black vote is said to have been diluted. [This gerrymander is working its way through the federal courts.]
B -- ADDITIONAL HISTORY
In the history of AB development there are two evolutionary poles: 1) The flyover project that permanently stigmatized and made more dangerous the access to our working-class community
at the south end of Mayport Rd., and 2) the evolution of north Atlantic Beach into a “cul-de-sac” community due to the permanent closing of Seminole Rd.
There are numerous other historical injuries to the neighborhood that occurred while we were denied a seat at the city hall table, including (but not limited to) the Commission veto
in 2000 of a landscaped, 3-meter earthen berm the JTA agreed to build around the perimeter of Veterans Memorial Park; efforts by city hall to clear trees from city-owned property on
West First St. that would’ve expose the neighborhood to additional(!) noise and pollution from Atlantic Blvd.; sidewalks built by COAB along Rose and Orchid streets that tilt so far
in one direction that they are nearly unusable, and the averted gaze of city officials that delayed the opening of the playground at Vets Park by a year, which insult was followed by
an attempted land grab by some of the same city officials that would have reduced the play area in the park for neighborhood children.
In 2006 a committee of nine citizens met and recommended that a residency requirement be added for Commissioners, which ultimately was approved by a citizen referendum in 2007. In 2009
the Commission election under the new law resulted in a first: 1312 resident Jonathan Daugherty was elected to the Commission. However, JD failed to win a majority of votes in his own
home precinct, which he also failed to do in his subsequent re-election campaign.
Daugherty told me at that time that he did not campaign extensively in our home district because the bulk of the votes were east of Seminole Rd. Subsequent Commissioners elected from
1312 in 2017 and 2022, Brittany Norris and Jessica Ring, won majorities in all four precincts. The historically lower turnout in 1312 is often used as an argument against a residency
requirement and/or district representation. However, federal voting cases under the Voting Rights Act are not concerned with turnout, only that each district be fairly proportioned
among a roughly equal numbers of eligible citizens who are potential voters. This is the “one person, one vote” federal mandate.
Michael Hoffmann
Section H