UPDATE: Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger tells Binker that he ordered the bill after receiving calls from residents and local elected officials in Guilford County expressing concern about "the outline of the maps that were being pursued by the majority in the commission."
UPDATE: The redistricting plan for the Guilford County Commission has passed its second reading in the NC Senate.
ORIGINAL POST: H/T Binker...
Proposed Guilford County Commission redistricting map under discussion by NC Senate this evening:
The session is streaming live (audio link).
Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Republican from Hendersonville, has brought up HB 719 for immediate consideration. The bill redistricts the Guilford and Mecklenburg county commissions, makes elections for the Lenoir County School Board nonpartisan, and prevents the Buncombe County Commission from restructuring. The session is in recess and will resume at 5:20 p.m.
The bill caught Sens. Gladys Robinson and Don Vaughan, two Democratic lawmakers from Guilford County, off guard.
"We were totally surprised this morning when we learned about it," Robinson said. "I was called to say that the Judiciary II committee was going to discuss Guilford County redistricting. I rose to speak, but they would not recognize me."
The bill overrides previous legislation passed in June that mandates that the Guilford County Commission reduce its number of seats and districts, but allows the commission to maintain control over redrawing its own districts. The previous legislation was the product of a compromise between Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and the Democratic leadership of the Guilford County Commission.
"We're totally disappointed because I was the person who approached Sen. Berger to sit down with the county commission chair... to see if they could work out an agreement," Robinson said. "We're totally surprised and disappointed that he went back on his word."
It is unclear who requested the action or submitted the map under consideration. Keith Brown, a High Point Republican activist, said the map is the same as one submitted by Republican Commissioner Linda Shaw to a local redistricting committee on Monday. However, Al Bouldin, chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, said the two maps are different.
"Earlier this session we passed a law instructing the Guilford County Commission to reduce its size," Apodaca said on the Senate floor. "We thought we had an agreement among all the stakeholders. They haven’t complied with the plan and may not."
Shedding some light on the purpose of the Guilford County map, Apodaca said, "The plan complies with the requirements of the Voting Rights Act and creates three minority-majority districts. And it creates five districts where Republicans and Democrats can compete equally."
While disavowing any knowledge of who might have submitted the map or requested it, Bouldin echoed Apodaca's sentiments in remarks earlier this afternoon.
"If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that they have become frustrated with some of the maps that they've seen from the commission that look like they don't have fair, competitive races," he said.
Robinson noted on the Senate floor tonight that the county commission was given to Aug. 16 to complete a map.
"I understand after talking to the chairman of the county commission, who knew nothing about this, that they had nine maps and they have a hearing scheduled for tomorrow night," Robinson said. "And those maps were submitted by both Democrats and Republicans."
Allison Riggs, a voting rights attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said the Mecklenburg County Commission has spent six months "having a really engaged public process" that draws on citizen input, and that tonight's Senate vote upends that participation. She added that the Guilford County Commission has spent the past 40 days developing redistricting maps at the direction of the General Assembly.
"It's very disrespectful to local government who have engaged in good public policy and good governance to have that upended like this," Riggs said. "There's no room for meaningful comment on what a bill does and what it means to minority voters when it's passed last minute secretly like this.
"It's not fair to any Guilford County citizens who have participated in redistricting hearings and to elected representatives. This usurps that process. It's not what the leadership promised."
The first Guilford County redistricting hearing — now perhaps moot — was scheduled for tomorrow evening. Among those most upset about the surprise vote was Keith Brown, a Republican activist from High Point, who has submitted a map (link) for consideration to the county commission's redistricting committee.
Brown called the plan approved by the NC Senate tonight "asinine" and "ridiculous," and bemoaned in particular how one district snakes along the southern end of Guilford County and then makes a curvilinear path one precinct wide through High Point and Jamestown and then through the Greensboro neighborhoods of Adams Farm and Starmount.
"This blindsided me," Brown said. "I'm working on how I'm trying to get my map approved by the county commission.... We're going through the process. They had 60 days to do this. Go to my blog. I've got how many days are left on Triad Watch. I have them counting down. We're, as we speak, 20 days left. It ain't like they did this after the county commission sat on it. This makes no sense."
YES! Weekly published an illustrative map (link) today that presents an alternative to one favored by Skip Alston, the Democratic chair of the Guilford County Commission.
Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, suggested the Senate plan to redistrict the Guilford County Commission could run afoul of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
"I wish you all the luck in the world in Guilford County," he said. "They’re covered in the Voting Rights Act. They can defend themselves."
Guilford County is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Regulations (link) adopted by the US Department of Justice state that supplemental contents that may be submitted to the federal government as part of a proposed redistricting change include
Publicity and participation. For submissions involving controversial or potentially controversial changes, evidence of public notice, of the opportunity for the public to be heard, and of the opportunity for interested parties to participate in the decision to adopt the proposed change and an account of the extent to which such participation, especially by minority group members, in fact took place.
UPDATE: Graham moves to amend the bill to remove Mecklenburg County.
Sen. Apodaca:
As we grow as a state, our cities grow faster than almost any other part of our counties. It makes it very difficult for our folks in the municipalities to have a voice because you’re going to be overrun by the big city. This is a way to let our small areas — they don’t like that. They want to have a say in their government…. This isn’t a controlled conspiracy to hurt anyone in particular, but to let everyone have a voice.
UPDATE: The amendment fails 19-29.
UPDATE: Two amendments submitted respectively by Sens. Robinson and Vaughan fail.
UPDATE: Sen. Nesbitt:
"People back home don’t like it when Raleigh crams stuff down our throats…. It’s totally and completely outrageous, and the voters are going to get you. We’re going to make sure that they know what you’ve done. You’ve disenfranchised the voters. Government is supposed to be theirs, not yours and mine."
UPDATE: The Senate passes the second reading of the bill on a vote of 29 to 19, and adjourns until 8 p.m.
UPDATE: The Senate will take a third vote on the local redistricting bill when it reconvenes tomorrow at 10 a.m.
2 comments:
they are going to have a hard time explaining section 5 in the public process in guilford county
I'm not sure I follow you.
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