Arlington leaders appear open to forming redistricting task force

Arlington leaders appear open to creating a redistricting task force, but not on when to assemble the group.

District 3 council member Marvin Sutton and District 2 council member Raul Gonzalez brought up the topic directly after a presentation about the legal process of redrawing district lines based on population growth.

“Since I’ve been on council, we’ve created endless numbers of advisory committees ... I think it would be appropriate in this case to have a task force committee come on board,” Sutton said.

The suggestion turned out to be an easy sell, as forming one was already on Mayor Jeff Williams’ mind.

“I anticipated we would have a citizens’ task force,” Williams said. “I think that would be a smart thing to do there for it.”

City council members received their first briefing on the redistricting process ahead of the Sept. 30 release of updated census data. Attorney Alan Bojorquez, whose law firm has worked with the city on redistricting since 2000, recommended any advisory group formed be as small as possible to avoid over-complicating the process. The city must adopt a plan at least three months before election day in 2022.

“I think that the variations that lead to a good plan are fairly small and few,” Bojorquez said, adding that too many members would convolute the process. He said he did not have a “magic number” of task force members.

The city has retained Bojorquez Law Firm for consulting on redistricting since 2000.

Bojorquez recommended contacting people or organizations who may wish to weigh in on the process ahead of time, consider ideas from residents and groups and conduct public hearings or live map-drawing sessions. Residents can submit maps in writing so long as they show total population and voting age population by race and ethnicity for each council district and redraw the entire city rather than a single district.

Helen Moise, District 1 council member, suggested waiting until the city and firm could identify the scope of redistricting work before commissioning a task force.

“If I’m going to join a task force, I think I’m working on a big problem,” Moise said.

Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley, District 8 council member, said she doubts they can wait until then.

“I think we need to have the structure in place in anticipation of a bigger job,” Odom-Wesley said.

The city charter has, since 1993, called for five single-member districts and three at-large seats. Opponents of the council’s makeup have suggested the arrangement leaves single-district council members with too many constituents and results in people feeling unheard.

Williams said governing bodies that consist entirely of single-member districts creates less room for compromise and does not allow for any representatives with the overall city’s best interests in mind.

“It’s talked about all the time,” he said. “Single-member district cities have huge problems in trying to look out for the overall welfare of our communities.”

Williams also urged council members to consider task force appointees who will uphold decorum.

“They scream and holler and then come back and we get nothing done,” he said.