Public Comments

My name is Steven Taylor Jarnagin. I am a resident of the Alta Vista neighborhood in the City of Arvada, Jefferson County, currently in House District 27, Senate District 19, and Congressional District 7. I would like to thank the Commission for allowing me to give testimony today. I have previously given testimony about the first set of proposed maps of the State of Colorado Assembly House and Senate Districts and how disturbed I was at way the City of Arvada and Jefferson County were subdivided under those maps. Specifically, under the Colorado Constitution as amended; districts are to maintain whole communities of interest and whole political subdivisions. In my opinion, at the legislative level, the political subdivision to maintain is the City, as undivided as possible. With respect to the House Districts, the population of the City of Arvada is so large it has to be in two House Districts; both of those Districts ought to be entirely in Jefferson County (with a small sliver of Arvada City in Adams County east of Sheridan Blvd). All of Arvada should be within one Senate District along with the Jefferson County portion of Westminster. Please don't politically break up our communities of interest. As much as possible, all of Arvada should be represented by a single representative that lives in our community of interest. Arvada and northern Jefferson County (north of I-70) have a series of preexisting Special Districts where they are already working together as whole political subdivisions. Examples include shared resources of Standley Lake, Transportation Corridors, Canals, Jeffcom 911, the Apex Park and Recreation District, the Arvada Fire Protection District, the Jefferson County Health Department, the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council, and most importantly, the Jefferson County R-1 School District. Arvada and the portion of Westminster located in Jefferson County are legislatively joined at the hip in a number of ways and should not be splintered into pieces by these maps. An issue example would be the proposed Jefferson Parkway which includes the cities of Arvada, Broomfield, and Westminster. As the House Districts are currently drawn under the First Staff Plan of September 2021, the southwestern portion of the City of Arvada is comingled with portions of Applewood, Fairmount, Lakeside, Mountain View, Wheat Ridge, and unincorporated areas of Jefferson County in House District 24. In my opinion, this is unacceptable. House District 27 starts at the northern border of Arvada and contains the portion of Arvada that is in Adams County (Thank You!!) but separates Arvada from northern Jefferson County. Senate District 19 starts at the northern border of Arvada and combines Arvada with portions of Fairmount, Lakeside, Mountain View, Wheat Ridge, and unincorporated areas of Jefferson County but leaves off the portion of the City of Arvada that is in Adams County and separates Arvada from northern Jefferson County. In my opinion, what should be done instead is that the first House District containing the City of Arvada should start at the southeast corner of Arvada and the southern boundary line should follow the southern boundary of the City of Arvada while the eastern line maps the boundary of the City northward. The northern boundary of that district should be an east-west line needed to create an appropriately population-sized district. The second House District for Arvada should start at the northern boundary of the first, proceeding northward to the Jefferson-Boulder County line. The Senate District containing the City of Arvada should begin with the southern Arvada House District and proceed northward to encompass the entirety of the City of Arvada and areas north of the City needed to create an appropriately population-sized district. Under the current House and Senate District maps, Arvada is already competitive and compact. Please don't subdivide us out of fair and effective, unified representation. Thank you. Steven Taylor Jarnagin Alta Vista Neighborhood City of Arvada

The vast majority of Routt County is rural and does not belong in the same district as a giant metropolis like Boulder. It would completely disenfranchise the voices of ranchers, miners, and small towns. The only part of Routt County that shares any interest with the district as currently drawn is Steamboat Springs, but one city doesn't justify the inclusion of the surrounding rural area voters. I would argue that you follow a tact similar to the state level congressional map that cuts Steamboat Springs out and includes it with it's similar cities and leaves the rural areas of Routt County to be included with it's common rural counties such as Moffat, Rio Blanco, etc. This could easily be accomplished by dropping some of the South Eastern counties that are included in the district currently. The natural divisions in the minds of every Coloradan are the Front Range and the Western Slope. It doesn't make sense to have rural Routt included with giant cities and have the district we belong in (from the perspective of communities of interest) expand far West in the South. Please, keep the rural residents of Routt out of the district including Boulder, a city which we have virtually no common interests with.

I would like to demand that Eagle County remain in CD3!

The Second Staff Plan for Colorado Congressional Districts is Fair and Balanced and should be selected (and the First Staff Plan was terrible), i.e. the Western Slope should be kept whole and in CD3. For the Legislative Senate District map – All of Delta should be kept whole and placed with Mesa County. It shares the same watershed and most of the Grand Mesa. They are much more unified communities of interest. Place Montrose County with Gunnison County, they have more shared interests then Mesa and Montrose Counties. For the Legislative District map - All of Delta County should be kept whole and placed with Mesa County. It shares the same watershed and most of the Grand Mesa. As described above, splitting Delta County reduces its voice and places undue hardship on the citizens, businesses and governing officials of our county. Thank You.

I am a longtime resident of Gilpin County, Colorado. Our county is small so it is hard to really decipher on the maps. And I feel that our concerns are often overlooked because of our size. I see that in one version we are grouped with Park, Chaffee and Douglas Counties. I know it is hard to design new boundaries based on population but this is ridiculous. We have no connection to those counties. In Gilpin County we have no health care, no dentists, no grocery stores, no banks, no movie theaters among other missing amenities. We rely on Boulder County and/or Clear Creek County for all our services. We live in north Gilpin County so the children here attend Boulder County schools so we pay Boulder County School taxes. We share fire services and senior services with Nederland area and these are our neighbors. We live at 9200 feet and fire prevention and mitigation is a primary concern for us. Mountain living presents unique challenges. Douglas County has none of these concerns. I believe that we need to be grouped with Boulder County as we are adjacent to Boulder County and share services, schools, concerns over the FAA air traffic issues and we have been represented well by our close proximity.

Commissioners -- Following are my prepared remarks for this morning's hearing. A link to the House map we are submitting can be found here: https://davesredistricting.org/join/df4d31a9-aa36-4d50-93c6-d3151bb9562b. I am attaching additional detail regarding this House map, as well. Good morning Commissioners – My name is Alan Philp, and I am a lobbyist for Colorado Neighborhood Coalition (CNC). First, as the hearings wrap up today and you head into the final stretch, thank you to all of you for your service on this commission. I will spend most of my time talking about a House map which Colorado Neighborhood Coalition submitted last night, but just a few points on the Senate. While there were things to like in Senate Staff Plan 1, the map as a whole is inadequate. You all have discussed a number of issues already. In the metro, we strongly urge the commission not to split north Aurora along Colfax and to consider configurations in the north metro that combine Commerce City and Brighton into a highly competitive, Hispanic influence district. Next door, the city of Thornton is almost exactly the size of a Senate district and would be competitive and Hispanic influence. On to the House . . . On September 1, Colorado Neighborhood Coalition joined several individuals in submitting proposed House and Senate maps. We were disappointed Staff Map 1 did not incorporate any of these ideas. Meanwhile, in the time since, we have exchanged ideas with others about ways to incorporate additional good ideas. The map submitted this morning reflects those ideas and discussions. Some specific thoughts. If you are going to build CLARRO’s proposed Roaring Fork Valley district, then why not incorporate their proposed district next door in Eagle, Summit and Lake? Then, you can build a highly competitive district over the top, as we have proposed. In Pueblo County, there does not seem to be much debate about a district that includes the non-VRA district portions of the city. CNC proposed a competitive version of this district, HD 46. Staff Map 1 does not. In Jeffco, CNC’s map proposes 5 competitive districts by utilizing Park County to fill out population. Staff Map 1 only has 2 competitive districts. And in the Aurora area, why not build 2 competitive districts? Specific suggestions going forward. 1. Don’t build sequentially – use some form of a footprint model that you can adjust as you go – but do start with areas of common agreement. For instance, there seems to be consensus around southwest Colorado. If you like my suggestion for northwest Colorado and Pueblo, perhaps adopt a version of that. You can always adjust around the edges going forward. 2. There seems to be agreement on the 4 Douglas County districts. 3. The 4 Larimer-based districts should be manageable. 4. Tackle the 8 Denver districts and 8 El Paso districts, figuring out where you plan to use the remainders after 8 districts each are built. 5. Then, move into Jefferson, Arapahoe and Aurora. 6. Adams, Weld and Boulder will probably be your greatest challenge, so save them for last. There is general consensus on the east Greeley / Evans seat, though some configurations tend to tilt D and others tilt R. We tried to draw it as competitive as possible. Thank you for your time.

The more I look at RE-Districting Colorado it becomes clear that using Population as the Primary Factor DOES NOT create Fair and Balanced Districts. Looking at the District Maps prior to 1964 the counties were represented much more fairly. Delta and Mesa Counties EACH had their OWN Representative. In 2021 the Target Population for each House District is 721,714. Now the Front Range I-25 corridor -comprising about 15% of the land area of the state- has 49 of the 64 representatives or about 77%. Rural Colorado is clearly Under ATTACK when 85% of the State is only represented by 23% of the state’s representatives. Please explain how & in what ways are the "Nonpartisan" Redistricting Staff NON-Partisan? We the People WANT a process that BALANCES Population with LAND AREA. The COLORADO RE-Districting Commission's 2nd STAFF PLAN of CONGRESSIONAL District 3 is described as “Congressional District 3 is a western and southern district consisting of the following whole counties: Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Delta, Dolores, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Garfield, Gunnison, La Plata, Las Animas, Mesa, Mineral, Moffat, Montezuma, Montrose, Otero, Ouray, Pitkin, Pueblo, Rio Blanco, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan, and San Miguel. The required population is then met by adding a small portion of southwestern Eagle County in the Roaring Fork Valley. This required a split of the town of El Jebel... " The CRDC's 2nd STAFF PLAN of SENATE District Delta County is kept WHOLE and placed in Senate District 8 - a large nine county Senate District. Delta County, N & E portion Mesa County, Garfield County (except SE 1/3), Rio Blanco, Moffat, Routt, Jackson, Grand, Clear Creek Counties. This is the second largest Senate District in this proposal. Senate District 3, which includes 19 Counties - essentially all of Eastern Colorado, is the largest District in the State (30% of the State in this one District). The Redistricting Staff offers NO VALID Explanation on how Senate District 8 was created, apart from "... the areas included are in the mountains... ". Senate District 8 is Convoluted and NOT Concise. Delta County REMAINS WHOLE while Mesa County is SPLIT. The House District Plan SPLITS Delta County in half. West Delta County combines with Mesa County, East Delta County combines with Gunnison, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel, Hinsdale, Dolores and part of Montezuma County. East Delta County has so few shared interests with most of these counties that we will NOT BE REPRESENTED (aka voiceless) in our State House of Representatives. Is Delta County NOT a “community of interest”? Delta County needs to be KEPT WHOLE! All of Delta County MUST BE placed with Mesa County. Splitting Delta County reduces OUR VOICE and places undue hardship on the Citizens, Businesses and Governing Officials of OUR county. I hope and pray the COLORADO RE-Districting Commissioners and STAFF will listen to PUBLIC Comments: 1) The 1st Staff Plan for Colorado Congressional Districts was simply awful. The 2nd Staff Plan for Colorado CDs is more Fair & Balanced and should be selected. In other words the Western Slope should be kept whole and in Congressional District 3. 2) Regarding the Legislative Senate District map ALL of Delta should be kept whole and placed with Mesa County. Delta & Mesa County share the same watershed and most all of the Grand Mesa. TOGETHER they are unified Communities of Interest. Put Montrose County and Gunnison County together. 3) Regarding the Legislative District map ALL of Delta County should be kept whole and placed with Mesa County. As described above, splitting Delta County greatly Reduces OUR Voice and places Undue Hardship on Citizens, Businesses and Governing Officials in our county. Thank you, S Patterson 218 Rio Grande Avenue Paonia CO 81428

The Gilpin County community has nothing in common with Douglas County. We need representation that will support us in our efforts for School District, Fire control, watershed, shopping, and health care. We would be better served if we could include at least Southern Boulder County to include Nederland and Coal Creek Canyon. I know you can not please everybody, but these are serious issues for our community.

Thank you for your LONG service to Colorado on this commission. These comments are regarding the maps as of 9.17.21 General comments: Please do NOT fragment watersheds and separate communities from their water source. Please remember that WATER is the primary community of interest throughout Colorado and will continue to be for the foreseeable future! Why split counties? Please keep counties whole House map: This is generally going the right direction for the community of interest which is the Western Slope. But, please do not split Gunnison, Routt and Summit Counties. Senate map: Please start over. These districts are not compact. Please consider the roads between counties. Thank you for your consideration.

We are hereby writing additional comments concerning your plan of redistricting Delta County. There seems to be no end of strange plans to take our freedoms away. What does this agenda to redistrict represent? The people of Delta County? You may have planned this meeting for a long time, but if we, The People were not given ample, clear & timely awareness of major changes being brought forth to redistrict our Western Slope counties, today's meeting's agenda (that greatly effects our future) is NOT ACCEPTABLE to us, citizens of Delta County. It sure sounds to us like you are only doing this creepy procedure, just to end our voices getting in your way. By: Margaret Hollander & Dakota Mills