Tag Archives: redistricting

City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

City redistricting process gets started

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The five council districts in the City of Peoria are going to change. After each decennial census, cities are required by law to redraw their district boundaries so that each district has an approximately equal number of residents. The process for redrawing those boundaries got started Thursday night in City Council chambers.

The City’s redistricting committee is made up of the five district council members: Clyde Gulley, Barbara Van Auken, Tim Riggenbach, Bill Spears, and Dan Irving, with Spears acting as chairman since he’s the longest serving of the five. Their first meeting lasted about an hour and consisted primarily of establishing the criteria for redrawing the district map. Some of the criteria are required by law (each district must have nearly equal population and be compact and contiguous), and other criteria were added by committee members (don’t split neighborhoods between multiple districts, use major thoroughfares as boundaries as much as possible).

Keeping these criteria in mind, the committee asked the staff to come back with some proposed maps for the next meeting. They’d like to see several different possible configurations: one that has all districts running east to west (layered), one that has all districts running north to south (columnar), one that has districts one through four laid out as quadrants with the fifth district across the top of it, and one that preserves the current districts as much as possible (West Bluff in second district, East Bluff in third district, valley in first district, etc.).

Senior urban planner Josh Naven is in charge of creating these map proposals. Unlike the old days when these maps had to be created by hand, Naven will have the use of ESRI Districting software. The software comes preloaded with political maps and all the 2010 Census data down to the block level, and has some interoperability with the County’s GIS system. When Naven draws a district boundary, the software will tell him the total population count, minority population, voting age, etc., within that boundary. He can use this information to ensure the new boundaries meet federal and state requirements as he draws the maps to the committee’s specifications.

All redistricting info is being posted to the City’s website at http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/redistricting. This is where the proposed maps will be posted within the week before the committee’s next meeting, which will be Tuesday, June 21, at 5:30 in City Council chambers.

While the committee doesn’t legally have to complete its work until nearly the end of 2012, the City’s Election Commission would like to see the new maps adopted by Labor Day of this year, if possible. Executive Director Tom Bride said the Commission has to redraw all the precincts in the City and send out new voter registration cards, and the council district boundaries impact this process. Precincts cannot be split across district boundary lines, and voting districts are printed on the voter registration cards. The Election Commission’s deadline for completing these tasks is earlier than the City’s deadline for establishing new district boundaries. Establishing the new district boundaries early will keep the Election Commission from having to redo its work later next year.

City of Peoria, Redistricting

City redistricting committee to meet next Thursday

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From a press release:

Peoria IL, (May 4, 2011) — The 2010 Census data will cause changes to the City of Peoria Council Districts. As a result, the City of Peoria has formed a Redistricting Committee comprised of the District Council Members and chaired by Council Member Bill Spears. The Committee is charged with facilitating a public process for drafting changes to the Council Districts and making a recommendation to the City Council. The Committee will hold a series of meetings to provide opportunities for the public to participate in the process of redistricting.

The first meeting will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2011, at 5:30 P.M. in City Hall, Council Chambers (Room 400), 419 Fulton Street. At this meeting, residents will have the opportunity to review maps depicting 2010 Census data, understand the legal framework for redistricting, and provide input on the criteria that is most appropriate in determining City of Peoria Council District boundaries.

Information regarding the City of Peoria Redistricting process can be accessed at http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/redistricting. For more information, contact Council Member Bill Spears, Chair, (309) 688-0960.

Census 2010, City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

Mayor to appoint redistricting committee

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The boundaries of the five City Council districts will have to change due to population shifts within the City. It’s a process called redistricting, and Mayor Ardis wants to employ a more “inclusive” method than the one used in 2001. The request from the mayor is on next Tuesday’s council agenda:

I am requesting the Council to concur with my recommendation to appoint a Redistricting Committee comprised of the District Council Members, chaired by Council Member Bill Spears. The Committee will be charged with a public process of drafting changes to the Council Districts and making a recommendation to the City Council regarding those changes.

Note that Redistricting Committees, comprised of District Council Members, were used in 1981 and 1991. I think the public process will be more inclusive than our internal process used in 2001.

The district council members are Clyde Gulley (Dist. 1), Barbara Van Auken (Dist. 2), Tim Riggenbach (Dist. 3), Bill Spears (Dist. 4), and Dan Irving (Dist. 5).

The 2010 Census shows the City’s population grew to 115,007 overall, but that growth was not evenly distributed throughout the City. Thus, the boundaries have to be redrawn such that each district includes approximately 23,001 residents (one-fifth of the total population). Here’s a chart that was provided in the council communication showing how many residents are currently in each council district, and how many need to be added or removed to reach the target number:

Council
District		 2010 District
Population		 Target Change
1 20379 23001 2622
2 20615 23001 2386
3 21305 23001 1696
4 21381 23001 1620
5 30624 23001 -7623

The new boundaries also have to meet federal standards for minority representation, and meet the requirements of the State of Illinois’ municipal code, which says that each district shall be “nearly equal in population,” “of as compact and contiguous territory as practicable,” and be created so that “no precinct shall be divided between 2 or more [districts].”

State law also requires that the redistricting process be completed “not less than 30 days before the first day set by the general election law for the filing of candidate petitions for the next succeeding election for city officers.” That means it would have be complete by October of 2012, but it usually gets done sooner so the Election Commission has time to redraw the precinct boundaries.

League of Women Voters, State of Illinois

Redistricting reform effort kicks off Saturday

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From a press release:

PEORIA — The Illinois Fair Map Amendment will be the subject of a rally and talk at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 at Childers Banquet Center at 3113 Dries Lane at Forrest Hill in Peoria.

The event officially begins the central Illinois drive to collect petitions to place the amendment proposal on the November election ballot. If approved by the voters, it will require that redistricting for the Illinois General Assembly by conducted by an independent commission, and not the legislators themselves, as occurs now.

Speakers will be Jan Czarnik and Brad McMillan.

Czarnik is executive director of the Illinois League of Women Voters. She is an expert in election law and worked to pass Illinois early voting and deputy registrar laws. McMillan, a former aide to Cong. Ray LaHood, now directs the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Studies at Bradley University.

Petitions will be available for signing and for passing. The League, in a coalition with other groups in Illinois, hopes to gain 500,000 signatures by April 1 to place the proposal on the ballot.

This a meeting where breakfast is optional, at about $10. The sponsor of the event, the Greater Peoria League of Women Voters will appreciate reservations, which can be made by calling 309/674-5313 or sending an email to ehopkins7@prodigy.net.

The event is free and open to the public and the press. Information on the amendment is available at www.ilfairmap.com.

State of Illinois

Illinois Senate redistricting hearing at noon today

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From a press release:

PEORIA, IL— The Senate’s Redistricting Committee will meet Tuesday [Sept. 22] in Peoria to continue a series of subject-matter hearings regarding how Illinois should best approach its redistricting process. The hearing will include proposals for changing the current redistricting process in Illinois.

State Senator Kwame Raoul (D – Chicago) currently chairs the Senate’s Redistricting Committee. Amidst a fury of reform ideas on various subjects in the closing weeks of the legislative session, Raoul made it clear that the process – which only happens every 10 years – needed to be addressed free of distractions in a comprehensive manner. Since that time, Raoul has convened a series of subject matter hearings, with his fellow committee members, to take on this unique subject.

“Thus far committee members have learned new information about how redistricting processes across the country are conducted,” Raoul said. “This further proves the need for a comprehensive review.”

With all of the myths and spin regarding the upcoming redistricting process, Raoul aimed the first meeting of the committee at informing legislators and the public on the basics of the redistricting process. The hearing included an overview of the history of Illinois redistricting, census data and the legal requirements for redistricting.

The second hearing of the committee included an overview of redistricting legal principles and requirements. The hearing also included testimony on a review of the redistricting process in other states.

“We need to approach this in a workman-like manner. We need to be intellectually honest and try to do the best thing for the state,” Don Harmon, a member of the Senate’s leadership said.

Despite an ongoing push for a constitutional amendment to be voted on hastily, Raoul and Harmon remain steady to their commitment for a comprehensive review.

“We need to remember that some of today’s critics were yesterday’s cheerleaders, when they were in the majority and controlled the redistricting process. We need to be mindful that we don’t rush into a reform that’s not really reform but instead simply rearranges partisan advantages,” Harmon added.

During the last redistricting process, Senate Republicans were responsible for legislative maps which have drawn criticism from those familiar with the process. These districts include the obscure 17th Congressional District map which was sponsored by Senator Kirk Dillard, a Republican from Hindsdale.

Dillard now joins his fellow Republican colleagues Dale Righter, J. Bradley Burzynski and Dan Rutherford as they attempt to fix the gerrymandered maps they created during the last redistricting process.

An agenda was included with the press release, but it was in the form of an encrypted PDF file that doesn’t allow you to copy the text and paste it into another document or post. Also, did you notice that the press release doesn’t say where or what time the meeting will be held? All we know is that it’s today in Peoria. Helpful. If that’s any indication of the competence of these people to execute redistricting in Illinois, heaven help us.

The meeting is at noon in the Hartmann Center Theatre, Bradley University, 1453 St. James.

State of Illinois

Redistricting reform long overdue

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I am so glad to see that a reform panel is working on the issue of redistricting. My preference for reform is this one:

One recommendation would be to model the process after Iowa, which turns redistricting over to an independent body and a computer programmed to be blind to party and incumbency. Iowa doesn’t use the number of Democrats or Republicans who live in an area in redistricting. As a result, its districts are much cleaner, compact, contiguous and politically competitive.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so just take a look at the congressional districts in Illinois and compare them to Iowa:

il_cd2002

ia-congress-color

I rest my case.