County Supervisor District Boundaries To Be Redrawn

* Citizens will be appointed to a redistricting commission by the Board of Supervisors.

* Data will be gathered regarding population, voting districts, races, political preferences, geographical boundaries and other information to ensure that the new districts are created in a way that meet federal requirements.

* Meetings will be held with elected and other public officials to disseminate and verify the data.

* Public meetings will be held throughout the county to receive public input on district boundaries.

* Several proposals for new districts based on the data and input from officials and citizens will be created.

* Additional public meetings will be held to receive input on the various proposals.

* Board members will vote on a proposal.

* The proposal will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice for final approval.

Bruce Adelson of Compliance Consulting told the board that although the process will be similar to the one used 10 years ago, during which many of the same supervisors were on the board, there will be some differences. He explained that laws have changed, new political administrations have different priorities than those in the past and the Justice Department will be looking very closely at how the boundaries affect minority voting groups.

As the district boundaries are drawn, there are a number of requirements that must be met, including balancing the population between districts, keeping existing voting districts intact and ensuring that minority voters are not negatively impacted. Other considerations include geographic, social and community boundaries. Board members and citizens will have to consider whether it is more appropriate to group together similar political, social and economic groups, or whether better balance is achieved by dividing similar groups between districts.

As Yavapai County officials noted, “Communities of interest: constituents who share cultural, geographic, economic or political ties; should they be kept whole, should they be split to extend influence? These considerations often conflict with each other and reasonable people can disagree on their relative importance. This is one of the reasons why public input is so vitally important.”

Tony Sissons of Research Advisory Services, who will be assisting Navajo County with the redistricting process, advised the board that as they take their first step in appointing members to the redistricting commission, they should consider individuals who are “not overtly political.”

“I would suggest that they not be high-profile figures. I would shy away from overtly political people,” he said.

He explained that the commission needs to be in place by late May, when the first redistricting hearings will be scheduled.

County Attorney Brad Carlyon told the board members that they will receive guidelines for appointing members at the next meeting, and that they should begin thinking now about individuals who may be qualified.

County Manager Jimmy Jayne noted that he expects to ask for names to be submitted at the first board meeting in April.

Since the issue of redistricting was scheduled as a work session item only, no official action was taken by the board.