The Dallas City Council has until June 29 to make a decision on how the city’s 14 districts will be divided, and it appears they’re going to wait until the last minute.
After making little headway in a June 8 session, the council is set to take a final vote on the matter during a 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 22, meeting, just a week before the deadline imposed by the U.S. Justice Department.
A council-appointed Redistricting Commission approved in a 10-5 vote May 10 a map that was met with resistance by residents, who claimed it was racially divisive, politically motivated, or didn’t meet the intended purpose of evenly distributing population while keeping neighborhoods intact.
The redistricting process is mandated by state law every 10 years to realign boundaries based on U.S. Census data. Challenges arise, however, when residents lose cohesiveness with adjacent neighborhoods, and elected officials are “redistricted out” of areas they have long represented.
Once approved, the new boundaries will go into effect for the May 2023 city council election.
Setting Boundaries
The map submitted to the city council for approval was created by District 14 Redistricting Commissioner Norma Minnis and later amended by Minnis and community leaders Randal Bryant, Brent Rosenthal, and Bob Stimson.
Council members had about a month to review it and present modifications requested by constituents. They came up with a 21-page proposed modifications report suggesting things like moving the Kiest Park neighborhood into Council District 4 and putting the Lakewood Shopping Center in District 9.
Councilwoman Paula Blackmon proposed that the Lakewood Country Club be entirely drawn into District 9 rather than split into Districts 9 and 14. Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis suggested a specific proposal in response to “overwhelming neighborhood outcry.”
“The proposed amendment returns most neighborhoods west of Webb Chapel Road and north of Walnut Hill to District 13. This amended map keeps Midway Hollow neighborhood to D13 but adds back in a small part of it that was drawn out — which would divide the neighborhood association’s boundaries. The Hispanic population in the northern triangle remains in District 6 (Marsh past Josey, north of Forest Lane),” the proposal states.
If the Dallas City Council fails to reach an agreement on proposed modifications by the June 29 deadline, the redistricting commission’s approved map will serve as the final product.
The only modification that passed in the June 8 council meeting was a proposal by Deputy Mayor Pro Tem and District 5 representative Jaime Resendez to extend the southeastern border of District 5 to include River Ranch and The Texas Horse Park.
“The redistricting commission has been entrusted with a challenging task, and I assure you that the commissioners are committed to working diligently to not only making this process fair and equitable for every Dallas resident, but also to delivering a council district map that provides for fair and equitable representation of Dallas residents,” said Jesse Oliver, chairman of the Dallas Redistricting Committee. “Because our goals cannot be achieved in a vacuum, community involvement and participation are critical to our success.”
