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Redistricting firm details how to redraw council lines
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@acnpapers.com
Having named a firm earlier this month to head the effort to redraw the boundary lines between McKinney’s four city council districts, council members heard a presentation detailing the project during Tuesday’s work session.
Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, a Dallas law firm that headed the city’s past redistricting effort in 2000-01, has been contracted for the current cycle and stopped by to provide facts and figures on how the whole process will unfold.
The current district map reflects the McKinney of ten years ago when past census numbers set the population at 54,369. Since then that number has more than doubled, and estimates from the North Central Texas Council of Governments put the 2010 population count at around 126,900. Housing has grown by a similar percentage, going from 19,877 in 2000 to a current estimate of 47,249.
District 4, covering the majority of west McKinney, is currently the largest council election area.
The redistricting under consideration is prompted by the 2010 census, the numbers for which will be released next year. Districts must be within 10 percent of one another in population, and once the numbers are available an initial assessment will see if redistricting is required.
During Tuesday’s presentation, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP recommended the following criteria for how boundary lines are drawn: avoid splitting neighborhoods, draw districts to permit the creation of practical voting precincts, configure districts so that they are relatively equal in total population, ensure districts are compact and composed of contiguous territory, and give consideration to the preservation of incumbent-constituency relations by recognizing the residence of incumbents and their history in representing certain areas.
Complicating the process further is the requirement that election areas for a number of state, county and city offices not overlap. So in redrawing the lines for council seats, the redistricting firm must be sure that, for example, the territory for congressmen Ralph Hall and Sam Johnson stay in separate districts.
According to a timeline presented during the council presentation, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP will begin collecting and developing Geographic Information System (GIS) data later this year in anticipation of the deadline for the release of census data: April 1, 2011. The redistricting effort will last through September of that year and include an initial assessment, public hearing, assessment of plans and public comments, presentation of revisions, and adoption of a final plan. October 1, 2011 is the deadline for changes to district boundaries.
During the process, the city will draw up an illustrative plan of any proposed changes to be presented at one or more public hearings.
The first election to be affected by the new districting will be in May 2012 (District 1 and 3), as the changes will go into effect in January of that year. Accordingly, council elections scheduled for next year (District 2 and 4) will not be effected and will run according to the boundaries established ten years ago alongside past census numbers.
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