By Philip Haldiman, Independent Newsmedia

The nuts and bolts of redistricting Peoria’s City Council boundaries will begin in January, with a new set of boundaries planned for the 2018 council election.

The city hired the consultant Research Advisory Services for an amount not to exceed $70,642.

The firm will work with council and the public on the redistricting process.

Their municipal clients include Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale and Flagstaff.

The City Council is scheduled to approve specific redistricting criteria in January and the first set of public outreach is set to begin shortly after.

City Clerk Rhonda Geriminsky said the city charter calls for six council districts, with district boundaries to provide for equal population in each district.

The Mesquite district, with a north border north of Carefree Highway, saw the greatest population growth by far increasing by 6,971 to 32,623 people.

“Each district will need to increase its population with exception of the Mesquite district,” Ms. Geriminsky said.

The population goal during the upcoming redistricting for each district is 26,927, based on a mid-decennial census conducted in 2015, which showed the city’s population grew almost 5 percent from 2010 to 2015 to about 162,000. Cities are required to redraw their council boundaries after census counts.

Ms. Geriminsky said while the 2015 count will be the basis for the redistricting, city officials believe strongly it was an undercount, It is important to note the 2015 mid-decennial census was conducted entirely door-to-door, which required residents to be home, willing to open their door to a stranger, and provide personal information, in turn, discouraging participation, she said.

The Census Bureau now estimates Peoria to have a population of more than 171,000, she added.
“Because it was the door-to-door method, we are not confident in the 2015 numbers, so it will be interesting to see what the 2020 census shows,” Ms. Geriminsky said.

The council will decide on a number of redistricting criteria, but three are federally required: each district must be contiguous, must have substantially equal population and each district must not be drawn in a way that imposes any practice or procedure denying or abridging citizens’ right to vote on account of minority status.

“We will follow the spirit of the Voting Rights Act and honor all the requirements to protect minority voting status,” said Deputy City Manager Julie Arendall.

There are a number of additional criteria the council may adopt, including district boundaries that follow visible boundaries, such as mountains, rivers or roads; boundaries that preserve communities of interest or established neighborhoods; or creating districts to minimize voter disruption. Ms. Arendall said examples of this would be maintaining the existing core of current districts, retaining current council members in their existing districts, and/or preserving existing election precinct boundaries.

“Within our city we have building blocks which are the county election precincts. So when you look at a map of the city and look at election  precincts, there’s a population number attached to each one, and they could become the building blocks for the redistricting process,” Ms. Arendall said.

One criteria the council can consider is allowing for districts to observe the boundaries of subdivisions, such as school districts/attendance areas. This could come into play, as the Peoria Unified School District is considering redrawing the boundaries for two schools due to overcrowding — Liberty High School, 9621 W. Speckled Gecko Drive, and Sunset Heights Elementary School, 9687 W. Adam Ave.

Councilman Jon Edwards, who represents that area in the northern part of the city, said coordinating the two redistricting efforts is a concern of his.

“It would be great to see if (PUSD) would like to chime in and be part of the process,” Mr. Edwards said. “What we do affects them and what they do affects us, so I think it’s good that we work as a team.”

Starting next year, residents will have the opportunity to create and submit maps for consideration, as well as participate in the redistricting process through open houses, the redistricting website, and presentations to HOAs, non-profit groups and other groups.

But first, the council must approve specific redistricting criteria.

“We will be coming back in January to ask the Council to prioritize all the criteria,” Ms. Arendall said. “All additional criteria  will be ranked and prioritized in priority order, but they often conflict with each other.”

Timeline
January 2017: Council adoption of redistricting criteria
January/February 2017: First round public outreach
March 2017: Committee review of all proposed maps; identify those that meet Council adopted criteria
April 2017: Committee presents to Council maps that best meet the Council adopted criteria; Council to select three to five finalist maps
April/May 2017: Second round public outreach
June 2017: Council review of public input and selection of new district map
May 2018: Candidate filing
August 29, 2018: Primary election with new districts