The Redistricting Commission met today to discuss a Redistricting 101 training they received from Meg Lamb of the Division of Legislative Services (DLS) as well as the formation of two subcommittees: Budget and Finance, and Citizen Engagement. The meeting was chaired by Greta Harris and featured significant back-and-forth regarding the Commission’s next steps.
Important considerations were raised stemming from the Redistricting 101 training, including the impending decision to take incumbents’ addresses into account, how to incorporate and preserve “Communities of Interest”, and if the commission will start from scratch versus adjusting pre-existing lines.
“We want this to be an inclusive process so that all Virginians feel good about the end result,” said Greta Harris, noting they will begin discussing how they will address the map drawing process, including presentations on the mechanics and software, during their next meeting on May 10th at 10 am.
They then established the membership of the two subcommittees, each comprising four citizens and four legislators and balanced by party.
Budget and Finance Subcommittee:
Marvin Gilliam (Co-Chair)
Sean Kumar (Co-Chair)
MacKenzie Babichenko
Sen. George Barker
Greta Harris
Del. Margaret Ransone
Del. Marcus Simon
Sen. Steve Newman
Citizen Engagement Subcommittee:
James Abrenio (Co-Chair)
Richard Harrell (Co-Chair)
Del. Les Adams
Jose Feliciano
Brandon Hutchins
Sen. Mamie Locke
Sen. Ryan McDougle
Del. Delores McQuinn
The subcommittees intend to meet in advance of the May 10th meeting and will be voting on recommendations to bring to the full commission. The meetings will be open to the public and we will share their schedules and agendas as they become available. Additionally, it seems the subcommittees will be accepting public comment via email to varedist@dls.virginia.gov, but aren’t currently planning on taking oral comments.
Four Virginians gave public comment, voicing concerns ranging from compactness of districts and redistricting strategy to the accessibility of meetings, including meeting times and closed captioning. Erin Corbett of the Virginia Civic Engagement Table reiterated the importance of soliciting and incorporating Communities of Interest while Chris DeRosa of the League of Women Voters extended an invitation to the League’s Day of Action to commissioners and the public on April 29th.
The meeting wrapped up with Brandon Hutchins stating his desire to leverage expertise from the community and confirming that commissioners are allowed to attend public forum events. Greta Harris said they will work to come up with rules for outside interactions with the community and how to allow discourse and transparency while staying within the bounds of FOIA guidelines.
You can find the meeting recording as well as written comments submitted by the public here.