The Virginia Redistricting Commission met for the third time this morning to review meeting protocol, website updates, and their budget, and to hear public comment. Importantly, they also discussed the need for intentional outreach to all Virginia communities and began brainstorming different, creative tactics to maximize engagement across the Commonwealth, particularly in rural and low-income communities who cannot rely on accessible internet. Nine people provided public comments during the meeting and two people emailed in public comments (posted here). A recording of the meeting will be posted here once uploaded.
The meeting started with a review of Robert’s Rules, a way of conducting meetings to ensure effective leadership and equal treatment of all members. The slides, available here, also note that according to FOIA, any discussion within the Zoom chat function is considered public record. Additionally, they specify that Virginia Redistricting Commission members and staff, advisors and consultants of the commission are not permitted to individually engage with interested citizens or groups regarding the redistricting process outside of formal public meetings or hearings to “ensure full transparency and accountability, and the integrity of our process.” Claire Waters of the Division of Legislative Services (DLS) pre-recorded this training that commissioners watched in advance, and it seems this style of pre-recording trainings will continue in the interest of leaving more time for public comment.
Julie Smith of DLS then gave a brief overview of planned updates to the Redistricting Commission website including:
Email subscription feature for notices and updates
FAQ section
Individual commissioner bios and contact information
Easier to find meetings page with agenda, materials, videos & minutes
A clearer bulletin to call attention to upcoming meeting dates
Co-Chair Greta Harris highlighted the need for language accessibility in alignment with the ongoing desire for transparency and was told that they’re still awaiting an estimate regarding associated costs and timing from their website manager. Del. Marcus Simon clarified that the ultimate goal is to have the website operating fully independently from the DLS website.
Amigo Wade, Acting Director of DLS, then proceeded to review the current state of the commission's budget and expenses to date (slides here). So far they’ve spent $220,000 on redistricting software, $28,000 on hardware and $160,500 on initial advertising for recruiting citizen applicants in 2020. That leaves over 1.7 million dollars left appropriated for the redistricting process.
Sen. Barker brought up the need to consider the cost of lawyers and consultants and stated his support for a racial bloc voting analyst. Commissioner Sean Kumar highlighted that many resources already exist and Amigo clarified that they would be looking at a procurement process where they would examine the options available to them for consultants and would consider what can be provided through state resources.
Del. McQuinn emphasized the importance of identifying ways to reach all citizens of the Commonwealth, which was followed by a brainstorm by multiple Commission members of different ways to engage hard-to-reach communities. The brainstorm included ideas like DMVs, COVID-19 vaccination sites, places of worship, courthouses, mass transit facilities, and strategic usage of mail, media, and social media. Finally, they discussed the potential for public hearings beyond those legally required to more fully engage the public.
The Commission then opened the floor for public comment. Kyle Barnes, Executive Director of Representable, discussed the desire to better understand how their organization can work best with the Commission by providing them with “Communities of Interest” submitted to their website by Virginians. You can learn more about their community mapping tool and our mapping drive with Representable here!
Corin Reade discussed the value of partnering with organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Virginia Civic Engagement Table (VCET) and NAACP, which was underscored by our Executive Director, Liz White, who encouraged the Commission to take advantage of our expertise and the connections we have with both community members and redistricting experts.
Other comments emphasized the importance of making citizens aware of the role they can play at all points of the process, the need to make meetings more accessible by scheduling them after typical working hours and providing ASL translation and transcription services, expanding the public hearing schedule, and requests that commissioners and staff have time to respond to public comments during meeting times.
The next Commission meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 26th at 10am where they intend to do a broad Redistricting 101, as well as review advertising proposals and the plan to record and transcribe future meetings.