More than 50 Winslow citizens met with the committee tasked with proposing boundaries for Navajo County supervisor districts June 27. Similar meetings in Snowflake and Holbrook attracted no more than three people each.
Speculation was that Winslow citizens believe that a major reason the city has no resident on the Board of County Supervisors is because the city was divided into two districts, and the city and its immediate area are a minority in both despite the fact that Winslow is one of the largest population areas in the county.
The Winslow City Council passed a resolution at its last meeting asking that the city and area not be disenfranchised by being split into two districts where Winslow area residents are a minority in both districts. That was the situation the last time district boundaries were changed.
The meeting was chaired by Marlin Gillespie, who introduced Deputy County Attorney Jason Moore, who explained that redistricting must be done after each census when changes are necessary to assure that supervisors represent districts of nearly equal populations. He said that Navajo County has grown by 10.24 percent since the previous census and now has a population of 107,449. To equalize the supervisor districts, each would need to have a population of 21,490 to be ideal.
District 1 has lost population of 18.26 percent, while District 2 has remained about the same as it was. Districts 3 and 5 increased slightly by about three percent each. District 4 has grown dramatically by almost 25 percent.
Winslow City Attorney Dale Patton explained why the city council passed the resolution asking that the area not be split again. Many in the audience spoke and echoed those concerns.
It was announced that there will be another meeting on Aug. 22, and the committee will present at least three maps in an attempt to equalize the districts. The Board of Supervisors will select a map of the new districts sometime before December.
Citizens wishing to see the maps and other information on redistricting can go to the county website at www.navajocountyaz.gov, and may use that site to make redistricting suggestions.
