Marietta City Councilman Johnny Sinclair, chairman of the city's redistricting committee, says there are a couple of options that could solve the "consuming focus" as the council redraws council districts following the 2010 census: What to do with Ward 5?
Federal law requires that one of Marietta's seven districts has a majority-black population. But Ward 5, which has been the city’s minority-majority district since the 2000 census and is represented by Councilman Anthony Coleman, is now only 41 percent black.
“There are ways to draw it, but the problem is we need to have a neighborhood that is about 70 percent minority to pull his ward up, which is difficult,” Sinclair said after the committee met for about 1 1/2 hours Thursday night. “The silver lining is that Marietta is already a very integrated city.”
The committee wrestled with what is required by law in drawing up the districts and indirectly addressed concerns that Coleman, who is black, could find himself in a redrawn district that is not majority black. Sinclair has said the committee won’t end up “drawing anybody out of their ward” as it considers new maps. Coleman declined to comment after the meeting.
Ward 5 has changed dramatically over the past decade, with the Marietta Housing Authority having torn down four federally funded housing projects close to the center of downtown and all inside the ward. As a result, the ward needs to be redrawn to add about 1,000 residents.
The population of Marietta, according to the 2010 census, is 56,579. Redistricting guidelines require that wards be about equal population, within a 10 percent range from the smallest to the largest. The average population of city wards should be about 8,000.
This is how the population currently breaks out: Ward 1, represented by Councilwoman Annette Lewis, 6,330; Ward 2, Councilman Griffin Chalfant, 10,217; Ward 3, Sinclair, 6,782; Ward 4, Councilman Van Pearlberg, 9,880; Ward 5, 6,989; Ward 6, Councilman Jim King, 8,939; and Ward 7, Councilman Philip Goldstein, 7,442.
Assistant City Attorney Daniel White presented the committee with redistricting guidelines that members said they may adopt. Goldstein argued that adopting the guidelines is unnecessary to redraw the districts and meet federal guidelines in time for the 2013 deadline.
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