Some of you had expressed an interest in seeing this.

City Manager Peggy Merriss was good enough to send along the map that divides Decatur into five voting districts, and creates a “majority-minority” district down thru the south-center of the city (District 2).

Please note that none of the city commissioners have openly supported or voted for this map.  They just felt it was important to look at prior to submitting the revised 2-district map to the U.S. Justice Department for approval under the Voting Rights Act.

Here’s something I probably should have mentioned before the Mayor’s casual “corking fee” observation post yesterday.

On Monday, the Decatur City Commission set up two maps in their meeting room at City Hall.  One showed two voting districts (both alike in dignity) with three areas moved from the northern district into the south to abide by the “one person/one vote” law, and the other a five-district map – one for each commish – that cobbled together a majority minority district.

Now I couldn’t see the five-district map, but Commissioner Cunningham made reference that it looked a bit like Fulton County, and that the borders didn’t really make as much sense as the current North/South split.  She even went so far as to say that the five-district sorta felt like “gerrymandering”, and that if/when the U.S. Justice Dept. called her about the redistricting – since she’s the only minority race commissioner – she would wholeheartedly endorse the two district map.

At the end of the discussion, the Commission voted unanimously in favor of the two district map.  Now, per the Fed, the City Commission must vote TWICE on the new maps, giving the public time to voice its opinion.  So they will vote again on the maps next week.

In an effort to comply with the federal government’s “one person/one vote” standard in Decatur’s northern (District #1) and southern (District #2) voting districts, the City of Decatur is proposing to the City Commission that three areas currently residing in the northern district be shifted to the southern prior to the upcoming elections in November.

As you can see from the map above, they include the area around East Decatur Station west of Columbia Drive, an area north of College Ave between Church Street and McDonough, and the area immediately west of Commerce and Electric Ave (which includes Swanton Heights).  To view a map with greater detail than the one above, see this PDF.

According to the city’s website, “the City Commission will hold public hearings and will consider the charter amendments at the June 6, 2011 and Jund 20, 2011 City Commission meetings. Meetings are held in the City Commission Meeting Room, Decatur City Hall, 509 North McDonough St, Decatur, Gerogia beginning at 7:30 p.m.”

You may recall the post from yesterday detailing a note to the Decatur City Commission from City Manager Peggy Merriss about moving around 800 residents from the city’s northern voting district to the southern district.

Well, I’ve rarely seen the Commission more uncomfortable discussing an issue as last night when the Mayor suggested that in preparation for sending the new districts onto the U.S. Justice Department, the city better look at creating five voting districts – one for each commissioner – due to the current impossibility of creating a “minority majority” district using the current two district breakdown.

None of the five commissioners stated their preference in creating five districts, but it was decided the city better be prepared and at least look at if a five district breakdown would create a single “minority majority” district before submitting a two district breakdown – without a majority minority district – to the Justice Department for clearance under the Voting Rights Act.

Many of the commissioners said they believed that smaller districts would create too small a constituency for commissioners and all voiced their support for the current North/South representational division.  If was also noted that if a “minority majority” district was created, it was likely that Commissioner Cunningham would most likely not be eligible to represent that district due to the location of her residency.

But looking at the New York Times census map, the Decatur’s black population looks pretty well dispersed – though the larger population looks to be on the west side of town – and the commission may be correct that a minority majority district is impossible even when divided into 5 districts.

In preparation for voting this fall, Decatur’s City Manager Peggy Merriss and Meredith Roark sat down with the Local Director of Redistricting at the Legislative and Congressional Reappointment Office last Monday.

Ya see, Decatur needs its voting districts to divide the city as evenly as possible, so that it meets the “one person, one vote” standard.  If one district had heap-loads of extra residents, the individual voter in the larger district would represent a smaller % of total potential voters casting their ballot for the district commissioners.  (For the uninitiated – Floyd and Boykin reside in Northern District 1 while Cunningham and Garrett call Southern District 2 home.  Since Baskett is city-wide, none of this technically matters for his vote)

Well, lo and behold in the last 10 years, Decatur’s become a bit unbalanced according to the 2010 Census.

A letter to the Decatur City Commission from City Manager Merriss for tonight’s meeting notes that the northern district with 10,437 residents is now 1,541 residents larger than the 8,896 person southern district.  (One must assume this is due mainly to new condo dwellers downtown) That means the north/south voting line will need to be pushed north to add more voters to the southern district.

Also of note, this paragraph…

The second issue that became apparent was that the south district was no longer a majority minority district and in fact, the immense change in demographics appears to prevent the City from manufacturing any type of district that would meet the “one person, one vote” requirement and still be a majority minority district.  Therefore, it is recommended that changes be made within the current district format as opposed to attempting wholesale changes by creating a different district pattern.

No location details for the potential new dividing line were given in the City Manager’s note.  Stay tuned.