Public Comments

My name is Ms. Katherine Czukas. I am representing myself. I have additional comments about recently posted amendments to the House and Senate map amendments and plans in the past 60 minutes. My prior comments submitted on 10/9 discuss about the challenging boundary of HD14 and HD18 in western Colorado Springs dividing up communities of interest. In light of the public level details on 2 other new amendments, I’d encourage a small change to any of the 3 recent changes: HA.010 McReynolds (presented October 7, 2021), HA.011 Kottwitz, Buckley to HA.010 (presented October 8, 2021), or HA.012 Greenidge to keep the W. Colorado Avenue neighborhood (between Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs) and Mountain Shadows whole by coming up with different boundary than current El Paso County Precinct 102. I’ve given a recommendation of the census blocks in Precinct 102 to consider to use to be a more appropriate boundary. Thank you again for making information publicly available.

CD7: I completely fail to see how Custer, Fremont, Lake or Chaffee counties have anything in common with Jefferson county much less communities of interest. Those counties have more in common with the Western Slope and Southern Colorado, and not the third most populace suburban county on the Front Range. Legislative Districts: I completely fail to see how so many multi-county urban and suburban house districts are legitimate communities of interest. Each house district should be in one county as much as possible, not spread across 3 or more counties. Your last maps make absolutely no sense, based on the new requirements we voted for in 2018. And why have you drawn so many Senate maps to favor republicans, when republicans are only 24% of registered voters? AGAIN. None of this makes any sense.

All I ask is that ALL redistricting be fair and open. The redistricting should not be influenced or controlled by lobby groups that are single party affiliated. The redistricting must be done to not allow a minority of voters to control our legislative process. This undemocratic process is found throughout our country and is against our constitution and democratic processes. Do not allow commissioners Kottwitz and Barnett to derail a fair redistricting process. Thank you: Gary Roberts

I am writing to encourage you to take a firm stand for transparency by rejecting any maps that could be tarnished by the ongoing, unreported lobbying to gerrymander legislative districts for the GOP.

Please reject maps being pushed by Commissioners Barnett and Kottwitz and support maps drawn by nonpartisan staff.

Colorado has done terrific work to create a non-partisan and fair method for redistricting that is a model for the nation. This is why I was so disturbed to learn that there is a move afoot to undo all the great work that non-partisan staff have done. I urge the commission to reject the maps that are being created by Commissioners Barnett and Kottwitz and use the nonpartisan maps that have been designed. This is an opportunity not only for Colorado but the USA to model non-partisan politics that puts the voters first. It is imperative that we do the job right.

We need this process to continue in an ethical, legal manner with complete transparency. THIS PROCESS MUST NOT BE HIJACKED BY ANY POLITICAL PARTY.

I urge that the commission take a stand for transparency by rejecting any maps that could be tarnished by the ongoing, unreported lobbying to gerrymander legislative districts for the GOP. I fear the undermining of a fair redistricting by political interest seeking to control the outcome of votes by arranging voters in ways that serve the interest of one party. Please protect us from partisan organizing, keep the process open and public, and protect a free and active democracy. Thank you.

Legislative Redistricting Commission: My name is Ms. Katherine Czukas. I am representing myself. I have been a resident of El Paso County for 11 years. I have more comments about recently posted amendments to the House and Senate Maps in the past 36 hours. I really appreciate that there are publicly available interactive maps and supporting materials, as I’m not an ESRI power user. I hope to comment on the plans/amendments from the 10/8 public hearing portion of the meeting, but they aren’t interactive yet. However, I am a power user of the roads, schools and businesses of Colorado Springs, and I wanted to comment with small changes to correct community of interest inconsistencies in HA.010 McReynolds (presented October 7, 2021) and in SP.009 Barnett, Fletcher, Greenidge, Hass, Horvath, Kottwitz (requested October 6, 2021). My belief is that with more time, other community members would have made comment, but time is precious right now so I’m sharing my suggestion. I believe these small changes will help keep a west side community of interest near W Colorado Avenue in the boundary between Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs whole, and also keep the Mountain Shadows whole. Again, these were priorities advocated by commissioners and in public testimony, and they are straightforward to do. For the HA.010 McReynolds – the current Precinct 102 of El Paso County is being put in HD14. However, there are particular census blocks (south of Garden of the Gods Park) which really are a community of people who are part of the Old Colorado City/Manitou Springs area. These census blocks should be part of HD18 and removed from HD14. Specifically, without an amendment to HA.010, people who live on the same dead-end residential streets such as Columbia Road, Red Rock Avenue, Yale Avenue, Valley Lane, and W. Platte Ave (west of 33rd St) are being separated into two different house districts. An amendment to HA.010 to rectify this would amount to moving a boundary line to impact about 1,696 people according to the DavesRedistricting.org (of the HA.010 Reynolds submission). Since there are many census blocks in a precinct, I’m going to suggest that the following census blocks in Precinct 102 remain in HD14: 080410037131040, 080410037131041, 080410037131042, 080410037131043, 080410037131044. And the remainder of the census blocks in precinct 102 be reassigned to HD18. Though the commission could describe this differently as well, by describing north or south of Garden of the Gods Park. My suggestion to move these specific census blocks would not impact in a negative way the target population deviations of HD14 or HD18. This suggestion would actually help put HD18 closer to the desired population size (moving from -1,308 to +388 target deviation). My comments about SP.009 Barnett, Fletcher, Greenidge, Hass, Horvath, Kottwitz and its impact on people west of I25 and in the Cottonwood Creek Park area remain the same as my prior comments of SP.008. (You can see those comments by searching my name for 10/7/21 public comments or for searching SP.008). But to further illustrate a suggested change to either of these SP plans is to stop using an arbitrary road like S. Rockrimmon Blvd as a boundary line, when using the middle of the Ute Valley Park, or even the private road where the “Old HP” or Marriott Hotel could more suitable boundary that doesn't divide a community. But if that’s not possible in ESRI, then my recommendation is don’t use S. Rockrimmon Blvd as a boundary for a State Senate district. For people living in the Rockrimmon and Woodmen Road & N Academy Blvd areas of Colorado Springs, my perspective is that the Second Senate Staff Plan and the Third Senate Staff Plan did a better job of thinking about communities of interest in this part of Colorado Springs using geographic or school district boundaries. I’d encourage the commissioners to think more about those options when considering what is relevant for most families in this part of Colorado Springs. I appreciate all you’re doing to keep the public involved in giving you our perspective via publicly available information. I hope this information will be of use to you in your process this weekend.

GOP redistricting commissioners Barnett and Kottwitz are trying to shove through maps to give state senate and house control to their GOP allies. Please reject maps that are subject to undisclosed GOP lobbying and support nonpartisan staff plans. Thank you.