[Durham INC] Ward Redistricting

[Richard Ford]

Did you all see the article today in the DHS on City Ward Redistricting.  It makes it seem pretty opaque as Ray Gronberg presents it.  Emphasis mine.

Do any of you know what the issues are or what is at stake for our neighborhoods??

Best

Dick

Council mulls ward solution
22 hrs ago | 810 views | 0  | 4  |  | 
By Ray Gronberg

gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM – City Council members say they’ll try to decide Nov. 21 whether to adopt a staff-proposed plan for changing the council’s ward boundaries, or to go with a different map that might alter the assignment of two voting precincts.

The key difference between the maps under consideration is whether Precinct 16, which covers part of Woodcroft and votes at Holy Infant Catholic Church, will remain in Ward 2, or move to Ward 3.

The original staff proposal assigned it to Ward 3, but that idea has drawn opposition from would-be council candidate and Downtown Durham Inc. President Bill Kalkhof.

Kalkhof in looking at his political future had assumed he’d have a chance to run in Ward 2, represented now by a known-to-be-ailing Councilman Howard Clement. Most officials and political activists are figuring Clement won’t run again, clearing the field for a newcomer to win the seat in 2013. 

Ward 3, on the other hand, is represented by Councilman Mike Woodard, who isn’t expected to give up electoral politics any time soon.

Kalkhof has argued that moving Precinct 16 into Ward 3 would split Woodcroft, as the rest of that south Durham neighborhood would remain in Ward 2.

Though those facts are known, council members showed a marked reluctance during a Thursday work session to discuss them.

“Tell me again about the split for Woodcroft,” asked Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden, who represents Ward 1. “That seems to be at the root of the [change] request. What is it about Woodcroft and splitting it?”

Cole-McFadden’s query was met with a lengthy silence, which she finally broke by asking, “Did Mr. Clement express any concerns about Woodcroft?”

Councilwoman Diane Catotti – just re-elected to an at-large seat – answered. 

“He really hasn’t been here, to be part of any of these discussions,” she said, alluding to Clement’s absence from several recent council meetings, including Thursday’s work session.

The alternative map that keeps Precinct 16 in Ward 2 would balance that out by switching a different precinct, Precinct 3, from Cole-McFadden’s ward to Woodard’s.

Precinct 3 votes at E.K. Powe Elementary School on Ninth Street and basically covers the Old West Durham neighborhoods.

Woodard argued that putting Precinct 3 in Ward 3 makes sense, as Old West Durham has natural political alliances with Ward 3 neighborhoods like Watts Hospital-Hillandale.

“I think we would all agree those are two neighborhoods that share a lot of characteristics and work together on a lot of city issues,” Woodard said.

Catotti said she favored the Precinct 16 and Precinct 3 swaps to address what she termed “citizens who were concerned” about the original, staff-proposed map. 

But Cole-McFadden professed to have heard no such concerns. “I’ve just talked to folks who are aware of this, and they seem to promote” the original staff proposal,” she said.

She added that she hadn’t heard any complaints about the makeup of Ward 1, presumably including Precinct 3’s assignment to it.

Mayor Bill Bell also pointed out that no one from the public, not even Kalkhof, spoke up against the original proposal when the council initially reviewed it.

“There was nobody in the public who wanted to pull it” from the agenda of the council’s meeting last Monday, when the new ward boundaries were supposed to have been decided, Bell told Catotti. “You wanted to pull it.”

Bell has made it clear he wants “this council” – meaning the current members, those elected in 2007 and 2009 – to decide the issue.

That would shut out of the debate Councilman-elect Steve Schewel, a resident of Precinct 3 who like Catotti will hold an at-large seat. 

The council uses wards to assure that at least three of its members live in different parts of the city. Members holding the ward seats have to live within ward boundaries, but like the at-large members are elected in a citywide vote.

Read more: The Herald-Sun - Council mulls ward solution 



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