CASWELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS  October 5, 2021 OTHERSI PRESENT Bryan Miller, County Manager Carla R. Smith, Clerk to the Board Debra Ferrell, The Caswell Messenger Matthew Hoagland, Planning Board Director  MEMBERSPRESENT DavidJ J. Owen, Chairman Jeremiah Jefferies, Vice Chairman William E. Carter John D. Dickerson Nathaniel Hall Rick McVey Steve Oestreicher  The Board of Commissioners for the County of Caswell, North Carolina, reconvened inr regular session on Tuesday, October 5,2021, at 5:00 pm in the Gunn Memorial Library. Chairman Owen called the meeting back into session and tonight we will be speaking about redistricting. We will try not to get too deep into the weeds tonight. The County Manager has some slides to share to tell us why we have to do this and what the process will be. County Manager, Bryan Miller, shared his screen with the Commissioners.  CASWELL COUNTY REDISTRICTING:  Chairman Owen asked everyone to speak loudly ift they had questions since we did not have One ofthe things County Manager Miller shared with the Board was in their agenda packet. The 2020 Census Population and down below you see the 2010 population. This is for the existing districts and the proposed districts. We also have the 2020 minority population and the 2010 minority population. The last column shows that percentage of minorities in each district. From 2010 to 2020 we lost 370 people in District 1, 140 in District 2, 115 in District 3, 381 in District 4, and 5 people in District 5. What we have is a 691 person or resident difference between the largest and smallest district. Which is 16.6% and 14.2% respectively. Then County Manager Miller asked if there were any questions. Chairman Owen said he had a comment. That is what is triggering us to have to do this. The County Manager said that is because ideally what you want is for each district to have the same number of people or residents in that district. However, Mr. Miller said he thinks everybody realizes that is practically never going to happen. So, what you want to do is stay within a 5% margin of error between your districts. Ifyou look at our current numbers, what we want to shoot fori is 4547 people ideally in each district. The 5% deviation could give us as few as 4433 people in a district or as many as 4657 people in a district. Ifwe can stay within those lines, that is what we are trying to do. When you get beyond 5%, that'sa real grey area. When you cross the 10%1 threshold you drastically increase your chance ofhaving any kind oflegal action brought against you. This is because of the one person one vote rule. Commissioner Oestreicher asked what the even number ofresidents was. County Manager Miller replied 4547. This is the first glimpse ofthe Census data we: received. This data is broken down by total then by race. You will see that we lost 4.1% in Caswell County population. Then  mics.  October 5, 2021    you can see the data for Black Non-Hispanic, White Non-Hispanic, Asian Non-Hispanic, Other Race Non-Hispanic, Multi-racial, and Hispanic or Latino Origin. The Board was given time to look over the Census data. This data was] put together by the Piedmont Triad Regional Council (PTRC) almost as soon as the census data was put together. This is a part ofa larger sheet that they had, showing every county in the Piedmont triad regional council's region. It shows the increases and decreases in the region. Then the County Manager shared another spreadsheet with the Board. It shows the data from the previous sheet, but one column was added. The column showed the number decrease, where the previous sheet showed the percent decrease. This shows how many people we actually lost. The sheet was enlarged for the Board to view easily. Bryan Miller shared another way to look at the data. This spreadsheet showed the total population in 2010, minority population in 2010, the percentage minority population in 2010, total population in2 2020, minority population in 2020, percentage minority population in 2020, the difference and minority difference in each district. Those are for the current districts. Commissioner Oestreicher asked why it is minimum, but County Manager Miller said it's not minimum it is minority. County Manager Miller said he went through all this data to highlight that our districts have changed. The number of people in each district and the number of minorities you have in each district has changed. That highlights the need. The number of people or residents served by each Commissioner has changed. That's what triggers the redistricting because we are over that 10% threshold. That's what triggers the redistricting for the Board ofCommissioners. Then Bryan Miller showed the current districts for the Commissioners from our Caswell County GIS system, and then switched over to the Ark GIS System to share the redistricting information they have gone through sO far. These are our current districts, and it also highlights where each Commissioner lives within those districts. Then County Manager Miller showed the proposed districts. The Commissioners have said they would like some input in redefining the electoral districts. Each one oft these blocks are a census tract. Each census tract has a different code of population, minority population, percentage of minorities living in each census tract. Commissioner Oestreicher asked ifby census tract he means district. County Manager Miller said no. The census tracts are the blue outlines. The County Manager exported all the census tracts in Caswell County into an Excel file. With 12-point font, there were! 22 pages ofcensus tracts. This is incredibly detailed work that PTRC has entered in for us. Commissioner Carter asked about district 2 because it used to be like a snake going up into Providence, Yanceyville and over into Leasburg. What did they do kind of square it off? County Manager Miller said yes, then went back to the map ofthe current districts. When you look at electoral districts, they should serve people with similar interests. So, to serve people with similar interest, the most common and prevalent thought is that those districts should be compact and together, not spread out all throughout the county. That's the reason why when PTRC went back in to do these they made more compact districts than they did before. Commissioner Carter said district 2 is blue and it looks like Commissioner Hall is losing some ofhis area but picking up some of Yanceyville. County Manager Miller said that is right. Then Commissioner Carter asked about the red district. The County Manager said the red district is Commissioner Oestreicher's because he would live ini that district. So Oestreicher will have Leasburg, South Yanceyville, and Prospect Hill. Commissioner Jefferies lost some ofhis to Commissioner Oestreicher. Bryan Miller said yes, but what's important to know is we're not talking about land mass. We're talking about population. Redistricting is about serving a population and not land mass. So even though District 5 seems larger than other districts, it really has 140 more people in that district than the  October 5, 2021 2    smallest district that we have, which does fall within that 5% deviation from the other districts. Commissioner Carter then asked ifl he was the only Commissioner affected by the redistricting. The County Manager said he thinks it affects every Commissioner because every Commissioner's district changed somewhat. Now having said this, the County Manager would like to get the Commissioners priorities. So, what the County Manager propose the Board doi is give your priorities for redistricting. Ify you want to say compact districts that's fine. Ort to preserve the 2 minority districts, Mr. Miller thinks that was something Court ordered back in 1989. That was an agreement between Caswell County, the Board ofl Education, the Board of Elections, and the court system to create the districts kind oflike we see them today and to preserve the minority districts. The County Manager thinks what he has heard to some degree is that each Commissioner currently represent the district and has strong ties to those districts. Are there any other priorities that the Board has for redistricting? The County Manager said he will take these priorities back to PTRC and say here is a list of priorities. Wel know what you. have proposed. The Board has looked at these and take these priorities and reconfigure them in the way: you can. Commissioner Oestreicher asked ift the priorities needed to be in writing, and he County Manager said yes. Then County Manager Miller asked ift the Board knew ofany priorities they had. Chairman Owen said for him one is compactness. With what they have done, itmakes it easier for a commissioner when they are running in that district. They have more defined lines. Commissioner Carter's district runs from up in Providence down to Leasburg. Commissioner Carter said before I had West Yanceyville up to Boyscout Camp Road toi it changed over to Mr. Hall's district. Carter's District also included Foster Road to Park Springs Road. Carter said he is losing that and Highway 150 back to Yanceyville, which they propose will all go into Mr. Hall's district. Commissioner Oestreicher said he likes the idea of compactness. Ify you look at his district it is the full length oft the county, and the way the roads are laid out that is not easy to do without driving a very convoluted path. So Oestreicher likes that aspect oft the new district lines. Commissioner Carter said he don'thave any problem with the new district lines. He doesn't know ifhe will run again or not, but ifhe did choose to run again, he wouldn't be able to ifl he and Mr. Hall were in the same district. Ift they could change it back like it was and leave Highway 1501 back to Yanceyville in District 2 and Foster Road to Park Springs back in Carter's District. Carter doesn'tmind about the southern end because Commissioner Oestreicher's District picks up on the end ofthe county. So, everything east of Main Street falls into Commissioner Jefferies district and the golfcourse. Commissioner Oestreicher said to continue, he would bel happy to have less of District 5: in the Yanceyville area and more in the. Anderson township area. Commissioner Carter said Oestreicher would lose the Anderson area in the proposed districts, but Oestreicher said hel has some really strong ties with Anderson. The County Manager asked ifeach commissioner would give him their priorities in writing. Commissioner Hall suggested since all the Commissioners were in attendance, even if they do it orally, have someone to take the notes and go ahead and get that done. We are working with some time constraints. Ifwe do it orally, then the Board can agree or disagree on how we move forward. Commissioner Hall said he likes the compactness. Commissioner Hall asked who was in District 2 currently and the County Manager said that is Commissioner Carter's district. Commissioner Hall said he had ai resident come to. him and ask what district they were in., and he told them they were in District 3, sO they went to District 3's Commissioner. Thej person was told they were: not in that district, sO they came back to Commissioner Hall and told him that he didn'tknow what he was talking about. Surely Commissioner Hall didn'tbecause when he looks  October 5, 2021 3    at this map, District 2: runs all around this map. Commissioner Oestreicher said hel had the exact same problem with District 5. Mr. Hall said so ifwe could get a general consensus on how and what we want to do, we could do that on aj pretty short order. The County Manager said sO what he has heard from the Board thus fari is compact districts. Let's assume that the Board as a whole agrees to move Mr. Carter back into the area he was in the current district. Then it will just be a matter of getting the numbers back in shape. The County Manager said he just wants everybody to understand that the lines are going to change. You may not be representing the same geographical locations you have represented before. The boundary lines are going to change. Commissioner Oestreicher said let us deal with the elephant in the room. District 2, in the proposed districts, has no one currently in this room in that district. That has tol be dealt with. That is the most overwhelming issue we got. Commissioner Oestreicher said hel has given his priorities, but he would bel happy to give them again. Commissioner Oestreicher said his are pretty simple. Definitely for compactness, and he would like less of Yanceyville and more of Anderson. Or more: rural or farming and less urban parts. Commissioner Carter said the only thing on his is that 8 mile stretch ofYanceyville up Highway 150. Carter said he see where his district used to go up to Providence, but it won'tnow. It will be shifting back to the southwest. Mr. Hall had that before, but Mr. Carter thinks he is losing that part. Commissioner Carter said before Commissioner Hall had Old Farm Apartments. The County Manager said SO what I'm hearing is that every district needs tol have current representation and compact districts. Commissioner Oestreicher said hel has heard this al lot. It's the point that Mr. Hall made. It's not real obvious what district they are in. It's very confusing. Certainly, with the way the lines are now. Commissioner Oestreicher said he also heard during another topic, people say that they live on ai rural road and the guy across the street is in a different district than I am. So, ifwe could: maybe move some oft these lines to the major highways and use that as dividing lines. The County Manager said that is what PTRC tried to do this time. They tried to stay along the highway lines. But you can see when I click on the census tracts, they don'tall run along roads. Commissioner Oestreicher said maybe what he is focusing on is the blue area that juts into District 5. Ifthat would go up that highway it would take some ofthe game land out ofI District 5. Ifit makes that more compact, then move some ofthat down to Anderson. Commissioner Oestreicher said one way to do this is to come up and draw al line with our finger. Chairman Owen said we. have to: remember that population is what rules this roost. Commissioner Carter said they took the snake out from District 2. Commissioner Hall said one oft the things that they may have considered, although he has not stayed up with all oft the laws in North Carolina, through some court cases they use to call this gerrymandering. The courts would say where all possible to stay away from that. That's another constraint and earlier we didn'tj just deal with the census districts. Someone just sat down and drew some lines. Well, dealing with the census districts on this proposed map and dealing with the constraints of gerrymandering. Hall remembers not this time, but the time before we had a district that ran from Charlotte to Durham. What was happening was they were trying toj protect an elected person and get inj population. Anybody can see that didn'tmake a whole lot ofs sense, but it was a district. Commissioner Carter asked ift they are redistricting in every county. The County Manager said he thinks iti is only in 30 counties that still elect Commissioners. Mr. Carter then asked will this affect the Senate and House districts. The County Manager said they will have to do those things too. Commissioner Oestreicher asked why the Board of Education's districts would be different. The County Manager said the Board of Commissioners draw the Board ofCommissioners' districts  October 5, 2021 4    or approves the Board of Commissioners' districts and the Board of Education approves the Board of] Education's districts. Commissioner Oestreicher said does the Board of] Education's districts follow the same population rules. The County Manager said yes. Commissioner Oestreicher said theoretically if we do this right, there's no reason they couldn'tuse the same districts. Commissioner Hall said but to put inj politics they want to protect the seats of their board members. Then the County Manager showed the Board of Education's districts in comparison to the Board of Commissioners districts. The County Manager said he is working with Dr. Carter, Superintendent, on redistricting. Chairman Owen asked if there is anything else as far as priorities in this. Chairman Owen said what he also wants the County Manager to do is give a timeline on this deal, sO we. know what we are working with. Ifwe proceed because there are time constraints here. The County Manager said working with any outside agency,you. have to work on their time frame too. What Mr. Miller would hope is that we can have something back and be ready to put in front oft the Board by our second meeting in October. Ifnot then definitely by the first meeting in November, which is on the 1st. The County Manager would like toj provide this data and information to the Board ofElections with ample time for them to do the things that they need to. We need toj present them with the resolution from the Board of Commissioners and we need to present them with the GIS data. The GIS data is basically what PTRC: is working on for us. Commissioner Oestreicher said which is the population data. County Manager Miller said there is some work on the back end after the Board ofCommissioners is finish with what they want to do and said these are going tol be our boundaries. There is some work on the back end and that will give us about 2 weeks to get it to the Board of Elections by the November 17th deadline. Ifwe can get it by the second meeting in October, Mr. Miller thinks that would be preferable. Commissioner Oestreicher asked how soon the County Manager could process the comments you: requested. The County Manager said he will have them to PTRC by tomorrow. Commissioner Carter said the filing period is in December. Chairman Owen said yes, but it would change depending on what the State says. The State would push the primaries further down, which could push filing further back. Commissioner Oestreicher asked ifwe needed to have another meeting before the 18th. The County Manager said he didn't] know when they would get back to him because there is a lot ofwork that goes into redrawing these lines. The last time it took a month from the time we initially contacted them until the time they had everything ready. Now this time most of the heavy lifting has been done. This is the Boards decision where they redraw the electoral district lines. Commissioner Oestreicher said as long as we conform to the 5% deviation. The County Manager said they will do their best to get it to fit the priorities that the Board has given. Commissioner Oestreicher said his recommendation is that as soon as the County Manager gets that back, that the Board reconvene and take a peek at it. Then the Board can finalize it on the 18th. The County Manager said we will call a special meeting as soon as we get something back in hand. The County Manager said we will schedulea public hearing accordingly. A public hearing is not required, but iti is a good idea in this case. Elections this year is only for the Town ofYanceyville and the Town ofl Milton. Chairman Owen said we will proceed when we get something back, and Commissioner Oestreicher asked that the information be sent out like this time. The County Manager said as soon as we receive it, we will send it out. Commissioner Hall said after we decide on the maps, we: might want to take another look at precincts and polling stations.. An example was that there were two different ballots in Prospect Hill. One for district 5 and one: for district 2 in the same precinct. That created confusion because oft these gerrymandering lines. Commissioner Hall said he thinks this is what  October 5, 2021 5    PTRC was trying to address. They won't be able to address all the issues, sO there will still be a few people confused. Commissioner Carter said that was the case in Yanceyville too because part ofYanceyville voted in his district, Mr. Hall's district and Mr. Jefferies district. Commissioner Oestreicher said whatever we come up with then we can look at making adjustments to the precincts. We will try to keep that in mind. Precinct 4 was both at the crossroads, which is Casville. The most dangerous place in the county, and it's aj problem. Those are things that are not directly related, but we should consider since we, got the door open.  ADJOURNMENT:  Commissioner Oestreicher made a motion at 5:48 pm to adjourn, seconded by Commissioner  McVey and the motion carried unanimously.  Carla R. Smith Clerk to the Board Attachments:  DavidJ J. Owen Chairman  October 5, 2021 6    Proposed 2020 Total 2020 Minority Percent  District 1 2 3 4 5 Total Existing District 1 2 3 4 5 Total  Population 4,516 4,514 4,514 4,546 4,646 22,736  Population  Minority  1,228 27.19% 1,296 28.71% 2,371 2,350 51.69% 1,455 31.32% 8,700 38.27%  52.53%  2010 Total 2010 Minority Percent  Population 4,537 4,837 4,973 4,697 4,675 23,719  Population  Minority  1,119 24.66% 1,385 28.63% 2,763 2,650 56.42% 1,289 9,206 38.81%  55.56% 27.57%  2020 Est PcChange (201 Percent Change  4167 4697 4858 4316 4680  (370) (140) (115) (381) 5  -8.2% -2.9% -2.3% -8.1% 0.1%  *2020 Blocks do not align exactly with 2010 blocks, so the sum of this column does not equal 22,736  Difference in largest and smallest district  691 16.6% 14.2%    Estimated Population by! Race & Ethnic Origin, 2010-2020  Population Distribution by Race,2020  % Change, 2010-2020 13.4% 0.8% 19.9% 55.6% 77.2% 195.5% 48.5% -4.1% -3.3% -14.9% 1.7% 55.2% 115.4% 34.7% 3.7% -3.0% 11.0% 25.1% 36.3% 222.8% 33.6% 3.6% -1.3% -5.4% 21.5% 49.0% 190.1% 35.2% 9.1% 1.1% 4.7% 42.8% 62.3% 166.9% 30.9% 10.8% -3.6% 14.3% 50.7% 47.2% 128.4% 49.8%  2010 Census 2020 Census 151,131 101,718 27,985 1,806 808 2,175 16,639 23,719 14,513 7,991 60 87 324 744 162,878 133,486 14,269 1,957 880 1,878 10,408 41,240 35,257 2,552 228 151 556 2,496 350,670 205,934 89,533 6,427 1,746 5,255 41,775 488,406 265,228 156,982 19,059 3,387 8,924 34,826  Alamance County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Caswell County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Davidson County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Davie County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Forsyth County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Guilford County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin  171,415 102,487 33,555 2,811 1,432 6,427 24,703 22,736 14,036 6,804 61 135 698 1,002 168,930 129,487 15,839 2,449 1,199 6,063 13,902 42,712 34,809 2,413 277 225 1,613 3,375 382,590 208,126 93,738 9,179 2,834 14,025 54,688 541,299 255,640 179,423 28,719 4,984 20,381 52,152  59.8% 19.6% 1.6% 0.8% 3.7% 14.4% 61.7% 29.9% 0.3% 0.6% 3.1% 4.4% 76.7% 9.4% 1.4% 0.7% 3.6% 8.2% 81.5% 5.6% 0.6% 0.5% 3.8% 7.9% 54.4% 24.5% 2.4% 0.7% 3.7% 14.3% 47.2% 33.1% 5.3% 0.9% 3.8% 9.6%    Population Distribution by Race,2020  % Change, 2010-2020 -7.4% -7.7% -19.1% -10.9% 3.3% 141.2% -0.1% 1.7% -5.9% 7.7% 53.5% 30.5% 202.3% 29.6% -2.7% -6.6% -5.2% 16.5% 33.5% 130.6% 18.0% -6.1% -8.8% -14.7% 26.4% 23.9% 193.5% 16.1% -3.1% -7.7% -8.7% 9.1% 20.4% 195.3% 18.7% -3.1% -8.1% -8.1% 100.0% 82.9% 250.8% 16.9%  2010 Census 2020 Census 27,798 17,875 5,182 439 121 255 3,926 141,752 115,205 7,979 1,406 834 1,630 14,698 93,643 68,744 17,529 423 448 1,340 5,159 47,401 43,447 1,897 125 184 494 1,254 73,673 62,611 2,644 339 240 684 7,155 38,406 33,022 1,165 71 82 317 3,749  Montgomery County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Randolph County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Rockingham County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Stokes County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Surry County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin Yadkin County Total White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic Other Race, Non-Hispanic Multi-Racial Hispanic orl Latino Origin  25,751 16,504 4,192 391 125 615 3,924 144,171 108,354 8,592 2,158 1,088 4,928 19,051 91,096 64,218 16,611 493 598 3,090 6,086 44,520 39,609 1,619 158 228 1,450 1,456 71,359 57,771 2,413 370 289 2,020 8,496 37,214 30,357 1,071 142 150 1,112 4,382  64.1% 16.3% 1.5% 0.5% 2.4% 15.2% 75.2% 6.0% 1.5% 0.8% 3.4% 13.2% 70.5% 18.2% 0.5% 0.7% 3.4% 6.7% 89.0% 3.6% 0.4% 0.5% 3.3% 3.3% 81.0% 3.4% 0.5% 0.4% 2.8% 11.9% 81.6% 2.9% 0.4% 0.4% 3.0% 11.8%  Source: U.S. Census Bureau, decennial Census of Population & Housing, 2010 and: 2020.    CASWELL COUNTY - BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS DISTRICTS  EXISTING DISTRICTS  3)  2)  5    CASWELL COUNTY - BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS DISTRICTS  PROPOSED REDISTRICTING 2021  (3)  D  @  2)  6)