Redistricting panel drops plan for 19 commissioners

Oct. 18—Members of the Cumberland County redistricting committee voted not to move forward with a plan to expand the county commission to 19 members, with three commissioners from the 9th District.

"I wouldn't be in favor of an additional commissioner in Fairfield," said Colleen Mall, 9th District commissioner. "Fairfield would be its own thing, and I think that does a disservice to Fairfield."

John Patterson, 9th District commissioner, said there were pros and cons to the plan.

"If you keep the status quo, it looks like 27% of Fairfield Glade residents would be represented by people who don't live in Fairfield," Patterson said.

Nancy Hyder, 2nd District commissioner, countered, "But they live in Cumberland County."

The three-commissioner plan required less moving of voters among districts and was more balanced for equal representation, Patterson noted. But, he said, many people like to maintain the status quo and several worried that more commissioners would make it hard to conduct business.

"The final thing, that Fairfield Glade would be treated special. There's enough animus in this county toward Fairfield Glade as it is, so that is an argument to keep two commissioners," he said.

Hyder moved to not continue with the 19 commissioner plan, supported by Rebecca Stone, 3rd District commissioner.

The committee voted to take the nine-district, 19-commissioner plan to the full commission with a negative recommendation. That would allow the commission to weigh in before the process continues, Stone said, in the event a majority of the commission wants to consider that redistricting option. The motion was approved with Charlie Seiber, 4th District commissioner, and Jerry Cooper, 7th District commissioner, voting against the motion.

The committee also did not discuss a plan to reduce the number of districts to eight, with two commissioners representing each district.

Fairfield Glade had the largest population growth over the past 10 years as measured by the U.S. Census, placing it out of balance with the county's current representation plan by 23%. Growth in the area resulted in a portion of the 9th District in Fairfield Glade being moved to the 6th District in the last redistricting process in 2010.

"There was a lot of movement, especially in the 9th District," said Ben Rogers, with County Technical Advisory Service.

Jill Davis, Cumberland County Election Administrator, said some changes were also made to better define districts with roads — though not always possible. Individual census blocks move together.

Once new district lines are set, Davis said she would then develop the boundaries for individual voting precincts.

"We don't like for you to pass a precinct to vote," Davis said. That's an issue in some areas, like the portion of Tansi that is in the 3rd District.

"I would like to clean some of that up, and this is the time to do it, but that's a lot of shifting," she said. "I do want to make it as fair as we can."

State law requires redistricting committees to provide equal representation for residents. Under a nine-district, two-commissioner plan, as currently in place in the county, each district should have about 6,794 people.

A 19-commissioner plan would provide one commissioner per 3,219 residents.

The movement of district lines did consider the residences of currently serving commissioners to keep them in their district. Commissioners must live in the district they represent.

While Fairfield Glade had the most growth, other districts also experienced growth. District 1, which includes the city of Crossville and District 5, which includes central to southern Cumberland County and Lake Tansi, grew about 6%

Other districts saw a population decrease, with District 8 losing 11% of its population. District 6 showed an 8% decrease in population while District 2, which includes part of Crossville, and District 3, covering southern to central Cumberland County, also down slightly.

Districts 4 and 7 both declined less than 2% in population.

The redistricting plan discussed at the Oct. 11 meeting included small changes to each district line to bring the population within the state's parameters for one person, one vote or to clean up district lines to make it easier to explain which district people live in.

The nine-district, 18-commissioner plan as presented had an overall deviation of 9.54%, which Rogers said falls within the state's 10% deviation standard. Deviation is the difference between the actual population and the ideal population per district.

Populations ranged from a low of 6,505 in the 9th District to 7,153 in the 6th District.

Stone said the lower population in the 9th District would allow for future growth in the community, especially since the lines would remain in place until the 2030 Census.

"This has got to last for 10 years and they are growing so fast," Sone said. "By the next Census, they're going to be over again. They've been under-represented for a while."

Rogers said, "If that's where the growth is, you want it a bit low."

Mall noted the proposal distributes Fairfield Glade voters into three districts: District 9, 6 and 4.

"Was there equal representation from Fairfield Glade so that one district of these three isn't low on Fairfield so their votes won't really matter?" Mall asked.

She said that in the current districts, Fairfield Glade residents make up a small portion of the 6th District.

"I want to make sure there isn't that lopsided number — fewer Fairfield and a lot more everybody else in a particular district," Mall said. She explained her concern was that moving Fairfield Glade residents into the 6th District in 2010 resulted in those residents having little impact on the election of 6th District commissioners.

"I want to make sure that whatever it is, that it's more fair than it was before," Mall said.

The proposed plan would move 1,832 people from the 9th District to the 6th District.

There were 840 votes cast in the 6th District in the August 2020 election, which included a special election to fill an unexpired term on the commission. Fewer than 700 votes were cast in that district in the August 2018 election.

About 885 residents of the current 6th District, including 538 residents of Fairfield Glade, would move to the 4th District. Approximately 1,000 votes were cast in that district in August 2018.

Stone said, "If the voter turnout is higher in Fairfield Glade, which is looks like it is, that's a significant shift. Whoever is running should be caring about that representation and listening to those needs. They're going to have to find that blend to get elected."

Shifting voters out of the 9th District impacted many other districts in the county. Davis said the move of residents from the 9th District into the 6th District meant some voters had to shift into the 4th District, with changes cascading across the county.

Hyder questioned a move of 239 voters out of the 2nd District to the 3rd District in the area of Brookhaven subdivision, noting those voters were also inside the city limits.

"I know you have to have changes, but that is city," Hyder said.

Davis said no precinct is entirely within the city limits of Crossville. Seven precincts have voters living in and out of the city's boundaries.

The committee briefly reviewed a plan to keep nine districts with 19 total commissioners.

Seiber said, "I don't think the voters would like it, but since Ben [Rogers] has done the work, I'd like to see it."

That plan would result in a District 9 population of 9,616 people with District 5 with the lowest population of 6,241. The 3rd District would have the highest deviation of the ideal population per commissioner with 6,724. The total deviation for the plan was 7.451%

District 9 would expand under the plan, moving 385 from the 4th District and 980 from the 6th District. About 800 of those 980 residents of the 6th District live in Fairfield Glade.

Stone said while the plan was mathematically closer, she had received emails requesting no increase in the number of commissioners.

"Plus, I don't see how the committees would work if you have three for one district," she said.

Districts are also represented on the Cumberland County Board of Education with one representative each.

Hyder said the commission rules rotated representation of one commissioner from each district every two years.

"We fought hard to get one commissioner from each district on each committee," she said, sharing how that had not been the practice back in the 1990s.

Patterson said other counties have an odd number of commissioners.

"I'm sure they are able to have committees. I'm sure they're able to have school boards," Patterson said.

He added that the three-commissioner plan offers more balanced representation and requires moving fewer people.

Stone said the proposed two-commissioner plan allowed Fairfield Glade to expand into two more districts.

"It blends those districts," Stone said. "I think it brings the community together."

Mall said 6th District commissioners Wendell Wilson and Joe Sherrill have been active in the Fairfield Glade community, attending meetings and working with the Fairfield Glade Fire Department.

"They've added a lot of balance, I feel," Mall said. "I think there is an advantage to having more than two for the other areas, as opposed to being disinterested in Fairfield."

Others noted there are other areas where communities are split into multiple districts, like Tansi, which has residents in the 3rd and 5th Districts.

"It's the same scenario as Fairfield Glade," Davis said. "I wanted to put them back into Tansi, but unless we move the whole county — unless anybody has any ideas?"

Darrell Threet, 3rd District commissioner, said once upon a time, each community in the county voted together.

"Everything's been split so bad over the years, one community, half of them are going here and half are going there. If do Fairfield, then every other place is going to say, 'I'd like all of us to stick together, too,'" he said.

Mall asked to see a plan that kept Fairfield Glade in the 6th and 9th Districts at a future meeting. There were also suggestions to make changes to reduce the population of the 6th District and increase the 3rd District slightly.

They will meet again Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. in the Cumberland County Election Commission office at 83 Northside Lane.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.