Mayor Pro-tem Christy Martinez-Garcia (right) speaks during Oct. 22, 2024 City Council meeting. Also pictured, City Councilman David Glasheen (left).
Lubbock’s City Council District 1 – covering north and northeast parts of the city – has 16 percent of the city’s population. But on the city’s boards and commissions, the district’s representation is 8.4 percent.
At a mid-October City Council meeting, District 1 councilmember Christy Martinez-Garcia tried to appoint someone from her district to the Planning and Zoning Commission, instead of someone from District 4. She couldn’t get enough votes.
Martinez-Garcia was frustrated because of the vote – and a testy exchange in executive session before the public vote where she later said she felt “a little attacked.”
“We do not have boards and commissions that reflect our city …. much like we … have a City Council that does not reflect our city,” she said during the public meeting.
It’s not just her district.
Four of six districts have less representation on boards and commissions than their percentage of population.
Why?
Residents from those districts don’t apply for those positions as much as people from Districts 4 and 5 in south and southwest Lubbock.
That also matches voting patterns.
Residents of Districts 4 and 5 are more involved in civic processes.
“I commend the Councilwoman for keeping these issues in the spotlight. I think it’s important that we encourage applicants from these districts,” said Tim Collins, who represents District 6, which is also underrepresented.
City appointments are “fairly proportionate” to the applications, he said.
Jennifer Wilson, District 5 councilmember, said, “We can do a better job about educating everybody in the city and encouraging people to try to get involved,” she said.
Brayden Rose, District 4 councilmember, agreed with Collins on lack of applicants from different districts and hopes it changes.
“My overall message to the citizens of all districts is simple: get involved. Get involved in your city, neighborhood, school, county, or any other area you can think of — just be sure to get involved. The more participation a community or city has, the better it can meet the needs of every citizen. And if we achieve full participation from every district, filling those boards with fair representation becomes much easier,” he said.
Collins and Wilson both credit Martinez-Garcia for doing a lot of recruiting – and not just in District 1.
Things got testy
During the private executive session, Martinez-Garcia’s concern about District 1 turned into a broader discussion of diversity, she said.
“I didn’t mention ethnicity. My concern again was that lack of District 1 representation. It was another Council person that addressed the issue of DEI. … and then it became an issue,” she said.
DEI means diversity, equity and inclusion and has become a controversial political topic in Texas where college DEI programs were shut down by the Legislature.
“It became a little bit more demographic as far as ethnicity and gender, and that really bothered me and insulted me. … I think for me, it wasn’t originally about this. I just wanted somebody from my district to be represented. And now I’m dealing with this issue,” she said during the Council meeting.
But the comment she said “berated” her remained private as did the identity of its author.
“I bring that up because that was part of the reason that I was berated. I am a little bit emotional about it, because in this day and time, it disgusts me to see that we have that type of attitude in this community,” Martinez-Garcia said.
“I’ve had someone say we’re using a race card. That’s not who I am. As far as feeling attacked, I will say that that’s how I felt,” she said.
Councilmembers LubbockLights.com contacted about the issue maintained confidentiality.
Councilman David Glasheen said, “I can’t discuss anything that was discussed in executive session, but I’ll say that I’ve always found the Council members engage in polite question and discussion.”
Failed attempt to swap names
Mayor Mark McBrayer supported Martinez-Garcia’s motion to put someone from District 1 on Planning and Zoning Commission and spoke in favor of more representation in District 1. He did not mention ethnicity or sex.
“I think it’s very important that we make sure that our districts in Lubbock are represented so those voices are heard,” McBrayer said during the public discussion.
“You can’t have perfect representation across districts, but if too many people live in one district on a board or a commission and not enough in another one, when issues come up affecting that particular district, you don’t have people there to speak up for how a decision might affect people in that district,” McBrayer said.
“These are all good names, all good people,” McBrayer added.
He was concerned if Martinez-Garcia’s amendment failed, the Planning and Zoning Commission would end up with three of its nine members from District 4 and only one member from District 1.
That’s what happened – the amendment to swap out names failed on a 4 to 2 vote.
Appointing members to Planning and Zoning
The city Appointments Advisory Board’s recommendation was to reappoint the following people to the Planning and Zoning Commission:
- Reappoint Brandon Hardaway (who lives in District 5).
- Appoint Tarek Redwan (District 2) to replace Zach Sawyer (District 5).
- Robert Wood (District 4) to replace Jordan Wheatley (District 4).
- Drew Gray (District 4) to replace Susan Tomlinson (District 3).
Martinez-Garcia’s amendment would have been the same, except Abigail Fleischmann (District 1) would have replaced Tomlinson.
The numbers
From December 2017 through December 2023, District 1’s representation on boards and commissions varied from 4.8 percent at the lowest to 8.4 percent at the highest. District 2, during that same time, ranged from 4.5 percent to 10.8 percent.
For several years, District 5 had the highest representation – hitting a high of 31.7 percent in 2021. But for the last few years, District 4 is first, most recently at 27.2 percent.
As of a yearly city report for 2023:
- Men outnumber women roughly 6 to 4 both on the boards and in the list of applicants.
- Hispanics are less than 20 percent of the applicants and 12.7 percent of board members.
- Board membership is low in four districts, but so are the numbers of applicants from those same districts. District 1 had the fewest number of applicants, 21 of 285 applicants, which works out to 7.4 percent.
Wilson pointed out how voting numbers roughly match numbers of people applying for boards and commissions.
“If you look at the election numbers, even from this election cycle, which we were provided on a daily basis from our city secretary, the voting numbers in those same districts follow that same pattern with ‘1’ being the lowest, then ‘2’ and then ‘3’ and then ‘6’ … with ‘4’ being the highest and ‘5’ being the second highest.”
LubbockLights.com requested voting numbers by district for the November election.
Early voting (without election day) by district:
- District 1 – 6,744
- District 2 – 8,362
- District 3 – 10,261
- District 4 – 21,313
- District 5 – 18,521
- District 6 – 13,028
Collins said, “I wish I had a good answer there. And with a good answer would come a possible solution to the dilemma,” adding the city may want to study the issue.
Beyond that his only solution was this; “I would encourage people from those districts to be involved. Their voice is needed.”
Wilson gave a more specific reason, saying, “I think it’s really just apathy.”
‘We need to do a better job of recruiting’
“When you have a community that is now almost 40 percent Hispanic, the implication is that you should have those numbers reflected on your boards and your commissions. And they’re not,” Martinez-Garcia said.
Martinez-Garcia is the only Hispanic on the council – so that’s 14.3 percent – but the city’s population is 37.6 percent Hispanic according to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census.
Martinez-Garcia said more Hispanic representation is needed.
“Not just because they’re Hispanic, but because they’re qualified,” Martinez-Garcia said. “We need to do a better job of recruiting.”
“I’ve been recruiting from every district. We’ve had an increase in the number of folks from District 1,” she said. But as just one example, she said there is not a single Hispanic on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Wilson said, “I don’t like talking about doing things based on race based on economic status, based on gender; because it’s not about that. It’s about taking care of your neighbor no matter where you’re at.”
City’s process
“The initial step in the recruitment process is our office puts out a press release four times a year,” said Jimmy Maynard, deputy city secretary.
The city collects applications from people and keeps a database for the Appointments Advisory Board, which matches people with open positions on various boards and commissions.
Maynard’s boss, Courney Paz, city secretary said, “Council members tell us priorities that they want for boards.”
That might mean more women, more young people or maybe even more people from certain districts.
Some boards require professional experience. Many do not. Most require someone to live inside the city but there are a few exceptions.
“If we’re asked to make extra calls, we’ll make the extra calls,” Paz said. “Sometimes people put that they work in sales. What does that mean? Well, let me find out for you.”
The Appointments Advisory Board will often submit more than one name for each opening, so the Council has choices.
Applicants for the Electric Utility Board (Lubbock Power & Light), and the Reese Redevelopment Authority Board do not go through the Appointments board.
The City Council is not required to follow the recommendations. Martinez-Garcia said not following the recommendations can lead to trouble.
“I think for City Council, that’s where the buck stops. And that’s where we need have a more concerted and conscious effort.”
She claimed sometimes the Council will bypass the Appointments board.
“You’ve got a couple of Council members that aren’t going first to the database. They’re going first to whoever they’ve got in mind. And that’s part of the problem,” Martinez-Garcia said.
She thinks the Council sometimes has shifting standards for who can serve on boards, she claimed.
Glasheen disagreed and said the city followed its own rules in the mid-October meeting.
“In this case, we relied on the recommendation of the Appointments Advisory Board. On Planning and Zoning, everybody has a representative,” he said.
“If the district didn’t have any representation, I think that the Council would have seen the situation differently,” Glasheen said about District 1.
When asked about having three people from District 4 and only one person from District 1, Glasheen answered, “Lubbock’s a big small town and sometimes the numbers don’t always shake out to be perfectly even. I think that the city has a very deliberate system in place to attract citizens from every region and demographic of the city.”
The city’s 2023 report said, “… The percentage of appointments selected from Appointments Advisory Board recommendations was 95 percent.”
Reaction from Planning and Zoning Commission
James Bell, chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, thinks his board on the whole does a good job. But he also sympathizes with Martinez-Garcia’s concern.
“I truly believe that these boards should represent the whole city. We need to be transparent and let people be involved,” Bell said
“This is my first year as chairman. I’ve been on it for five years now. We have really changed it … We’ve got people from different walks of lives. When I first started, it was very builder/developer heavy, which I’m not saying that’s bad. But I don’t think that’s totally good.”
But now, he said, there are lay persons, a professor, a probation officer and a nurse.
He called it a balanced approach, adding his commission carries real weight with the city on important decisions.
“It’s very important in the operations of the city to do it right for everybody – and to be fair to everybody. It’s got a lot better cross section than it did when I first started, in my opinion,” Bell said.
Comment, react or share on our Facebook post.
Facebook