Hearing on Redistricting Continues Tonight

In a special session of the Concord City Council on Aug. 10, residents have the opportunity to sound off on changes the Redistricting Committee is proposing to the city’s voting wards.

So far, none seem interested. At Monday’s meeting, not a single person testified about the issue during the public hearing phase of the hearing.

For about two months, the Redistricting Committee has been eyeing the U.S. Census numbers and created a number of different configurations on how to change the wards in Concord to abide by federal standards of wards being no more than 5 percent above or below the average city ward size. Members also analyzed seven and nine ward configurations that could have eliminated the at-large councilors.

Before the council meeting, the Redistricting Committee met one last time to analyze the changes, now in their seventh form, and brief ward councilors in attendance about the changes.

“I like where we ended up, it’s pretty defined,” said Mark Coen, an at-large city councilor. “It really cleaned up well.”

Jae Whitehall asked what specifics differences there were between Alternative 4 and Alternative 7.

Assistant City Planner Steve Henninger said the west side of the city was naturally split by School Street and now, with changes to Wards 4, 5, and 6, it becomes a little more cohesive and less dense.

“It’s still relatively dense,” he said.

Mayor Jim Bouley said the proposal offered “more cleaner lines, in terms of streets,” and the new designs give more options for polling locations than the wards currently have.

Michael Gfoerer, a Ward 5 polling official, stated that he was concerned about where the location would be for the presidential primary. He said that the Dewey School may or may not work. The new McAuliffe Elementary School wouldn’t be available until the fall 2012, at the earliest, assuming it can be used as a polling place, and Concord High School had its issues.

“Parking has been an issue there for 25 years,”

Bouley said School Board President Kass Ardinger said McAuliffe would be available when it was open.

Coen noted that Bishop Brady High School and the old Millville School/Parker Academy building were also in Ward 5 and could possibly be used for polling locations.

Concord City Clerk Janice Bonenfant said her department would find an appropriate polling location before the primary. 

Effective date

Jim Kennedy, the deputy city solicitor, said the Secretary of State’s Office stated that the effective date of the redistricting would need to be a suitable time before the September 2012 primary. He had other concerns with the plans too, especially surrounding potential city council candidates who might run this year and find themselves redistricted out of their wards after the election. Kennedy said there could be special elections held to fill those seats during the presidential primary voting, but noted that turnout could potentially be lower due to the fact that only one political party had a contested primary.

Later, Bouley decided the effective date would be Jan. 1, 2012.

Bonenfant said there were good options for polling locations in Ward 5 and her staff would work with legal to make sure everything was prepared in time.

“I think there are some good options,” she said.

City Republican Jamie Burnett was asked if he thought moving the polling locations around would affect turnout for the primary. Burnett said he trusted the clerk to find a polling location.

“It doesn’t concern me,” he said. “With enough notice.”

Gfoerer said potentially there could be three different polling locations in four different elections within one year.

Kennedy said that at some point, probably by the general election, there would be a designated polling location.

Bonenfant said the temporary polling place for Ward 5 could be the permanent site.

Burnett suggested delaying the new polling location change until after the presidential cycle, maybe into 2013.

Coen said that when looking at the reconfiguration, nine of the 10 wards had no problems at all. 

Ward 4 councilor reacts

However, at least one ward councilor was not happy with the proposed changes. 

Ward 4 City Councilor Amanda Grady called the changes “disappointing” and specifically said she was “not pleased with the new configuration” since it took out some downtown housing areas. She said that Alternative 7 “looks a lot better” than Alternative 4, but called it “a substantial change.”

The changes moved a few Census blocks along Auburn Street and six blocks along School Street into Ward 5 while moving the Green Street Community Center area out of Ward 5 and into Ward 4. NHTI and the Fort Eddy Road areas were moved into Ward 4 from Ward 8. 

Coen though challenged the assertion saying the ward lines didn’t damage property values or take away anyone’s voting rights.

“I don’t quite understand,” he said. “It sounds like we’re doing something negative to the voters.”

“It just changes the flavor of the ward altogether,” Grady said. “It changes the integrity of Ward 4. You’re taking away the core residential area and putting in the Tech.”

However, she added that she understood that the reconfiguration was “a delicate balance.”

Bouley said that adding NHTI to Ward 4 added significant population numbers. He said the areas around NHTI and Fort Eddy Road didn’t fit into Ward 4 or Ward 6. However, after the Census numbers were crunched, Ward 8, needed to lose population. Currently, both NHTI and Fort Eddy Road are in Ward 8.