Redistricting Joint Task Force Committee members reached consensus for the firm of Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta in Austin, to bring an example plan or plans to the entities so the redrawing process can begin.
The gathering of representatives from Ector County ISD, the City of Odessa, Ector County Hospital District and Odessa College took place Monday in Conference Room A/B on the third floor of the ECISD administration building.
The redistricting process was triggered by the 2020 census and growth in Ector County.
The firm was hired by all four entities for redistricting.
The entities want to get the plan done in late summer in time for the city’s November election. ECISD and Odessa College both have vacant spots on their boards that they are waiting for redistricting to fill.
Syd Falk, a partner with Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta, said they would send incumbent maps in the next few days.
Falk said the firm would provide example plans and hopes to do that by the end of next week. The example plans are intended to be a starting point for discussion by the committee.
Falk said the imperative is to balance the districts, and while you’re doing that try to do the least harm to minority districts that you can and the third thing is 19 or 20 incumbents.
“That’s what makes it difficult,” Falk said.
The process will include drawing sessions and public input.
The committee will recommend a plan to present to the governing bodies for ultimate adoption. The city isn’t countywide and has five instead of seven districts so they can’t mimic the other districts.
Falk said the committee was going to follow four basic principles:
>> One person one vote (equal population); courts have interpreted that provision to require that single-member districts or legislative type body must be of equal population.
>> Voting rights Act, Section 2 (non discrimination).
Shaw vs Reno (limits use of race).
>> As a diagnostic tool, Voting Rights Act, Section 5 (retrogression).
The rule of thumb for one person, one vote would be a deviation of 10 percent of less, by comparing the most populous district to the least populous district.
Generally, the maps should avoid cracking or packing.
According to information from Falk, cracking or fracturing is dividing minority voters to fragment their voting power.
Packing is concentrating minority voters when dividing them would permit the group to elect their candidates of choice in more than one district, he said.
The representatives were also charged with adopting redistricting criteria — goals to try for — including identifiable boundaries; maintaining communities of interest and neighborhoods; using whole voting precincts if possible; basing the plan on existing districts; adopting districts of relatively equal size; drawing districts that are compact and contiguous; keeping existing incumbents in their districts; narrowly tailoring the plan to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
Falk said all of these are to the extent that they are practical and feasible.
He and his map drawer will draw a sample map or two for the entities to look at.
