Jacksonville Committee Kicks Off Council Redistricting
With the local 2020 Census numbers being released on August 12, the city of Jacksonville can now begin the decennial task of drawing new district lines for the city council and school board seats.
The Special Committee on Redistricting is tasked to draw the new lines that reflect changes to the city’s population over the past ten years. On August 18 the committee, which includes five city council and two school board members, began their discussions.
Deputy Managing General Counsel Peggy Sidman explained to the committee their legal requirements and considerations it must follow when drawing the maps. Director of Planning and Development Bill Killingsworth presented to them the hard numbers and where populations changes have occurred in the past decade.
According to the census, Jacksonville’s population, including the beaches and Baldwin is 995,567. The populations of the districts can’t diversify by more than 10-percent. The committed can legally either use the total population of Jacksonville or those of voting age to draw the lines. Previous committees have stayed with the total population and court cases have favored using them. That would leave each council district with a population of around 74,000.
In past years, an effort was made to keep the three beach communities in the same district and to minimize having district lines cross the St. Johns River. The river had to be crossed ten years ago, but Killingsworth said it is possible to avoid that this time around if the committee so wishes. He said it will be up to them if they want to keep other areas represented by one district. “Should Cecil Field all be in one district or should it be represented by multiple districts? Should downtown be in one district or be represented by multiple districts? Clearly, if you make a decision to minimize the river that bodes for at least two council districts,” he said.
If the committee wants to make other changes like avoiding crossing interstates or dividing neighborhoods, they can do so as long as the numbers work. The four traditional minority-majority districts are not a legal requirement. However, while districts’ boundaries can’t be drawn along racial lines, they must also comply with the Voting Rights Act that requires some districts to be shaped to enable minority voters to act as the majority in a given geographic area. Committee Chair Aaron Bowman said he doesn’t expect any problems being able to maintain the four minority-majority districts.
The good news for the committee is that Killingsworth said while the largest amount of population increased occurred in the southeastern part of the city, there has been enough growth in other areas that new maps can be drawn without having to make major changes if the committee desires. He said only District 11 is out of compliance with the 10-percent rule.
The committee doesn’t appear interested in major changes to districts as it directed Killingsworth to start with the current boundaries as a guide.
Bowman said he would like to see the committee wrap up its work by mid-December ahead of the Holiday break.
By law, the proposed maps must be submitted to the Council Secretary by January 9. It is then submitted to the Rules committee.
The committee then must hold at least three public hearings in different parts of the city over the next 45 days for the public to submit their input.
The full council must approve the new maps, which include the seven school board districts and five at-large region maps by April 12, 2022.
Since the numbers were released later than during the previous census counts the maps will be finalized too late for the 2022 elections.
The new boundaries will take effect for the spring 2023 council elections and the 2024 school board races.
By Kevin J. Meerschaert
Resident Community News
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