County redistricting committee narrows proposed maps, will meet again as deadline looms
A committee has narrowed Sedgwick County’s list of 11 proposed commission district maps to four tentative finalists.
The hastily assembled Sedgwick County Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee will meet again Wednesday at noon, two days before its final recommendations on redistricting are due to the Sedgwick County Commission, the governing body whose district boundaries are being redrawn.
The 15-person committee, which was created last month amid questions of fairness in the redistricting process, met last week and eliminated seven of the 11 district maps proposed by the county.
Three of the seven rejected maps were drawn by sitting county commissioners — two by District 5 Commissioner Jim Howell and one by District 4 Commissioner Lacey Cruse.
The four remaining maps, drawn by county staff, are maps 2, 3, 4 and 6. The redistricting committee is allowed to amend proposed maps or introduce their own if they choose to.
Once every 10 years, the County Commission redraws its five district boundaries so that each commissioner represents roughly the same number of people.
The Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee was hurriedly convened after Sedgwick County faced backlash from residents and the ACLU for ignoring race demographics to avoid accusations of gerrymandering.
The County Commission scrapped its initial plan for a nonpartisan redistricting committee in favor of a body with five commissioner appointees and five partisan appointees each from the county Republican and Democratic parties.
The redistricting committee’s final report is due Friday, five days before the County Commission’s final pre-holiday break meeting on Dec. 15.
The committee’s Wednesday meeting on the third floor of the main courthouse is open to the public but in-person public testimony will not be allowed. Comments and concerns for the committee must be submitted ahead of time through the county’s website.
The meeting will also be streamed on the county’s YouTube and Facebook pages.