Kansas City’s redistricting commission will hold public comment hearings. What to know
Nine people shuffled the next decade of possible Kansas City Council districts around in their hands, a different map colored on each piece of paper.
The Kansas City Redistricting Commission, appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas, was tasked at the beginning of September with drawing new council district lines — a nine-month task shortened to a few weeks by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new lines will determine which of the six the council districts Kansas Citians will live in for the next 10 years.
At their weekly Wednesday meetings, the nine commissioners have pored over maps created by city staff based on the commission’s suggestions. Those maps show possible shapes and boundaries.
But nothing is final. With a focus on equity, the panel will hold three sessions for the public to comment on the work done so far and to hear from the community on what it wants to see.
The commission will present its findings to the City Council in November.
What is redistricting?
The redistricting process happens every 10 years, based on population changes in the latest Census. The law requires that maps be drawn so that districts are as close to equal in population as possible.
Census data released last month showed Kansas City’s population climbed to an all-time high of over 508,000 residents, up 11% from 2010. The gains were largely due to increases in white, Hispanic, Asian and multiracial populations.
It means that some boundaries will have to be shifted to achieve equalization.
“We have representation based on population so we have all these different districts representing these populations,” said Greg Vonnahme, associate professor and department chair in the Univeristy of Missouri-Kansas City’s Department of Political Science,Vonnahme said.
“The political challenge that that creates is when the populations change, the maps and the districts have to change.”
And anytime that happens, he added, politics get involved.
That’s why many state and local governments have switched to nonpartisan commissions or boards.
Those commissions “take the power away from elected officials to give it to nonpartisan boards, and commissions and bodies,” Vonnahme said.
Kansas City’s commission is one of those nonpartisan bodies.
Matt Gigliotti, city attorney, urged the commission at its first meeting to keep in mind the principle of each person having one vote — meaning everyone’s vote should carry equal weight no matter where they live. The commission must also ensure that it does not as disenfranchise certain populations, he said.
With the increased population, Kansas City’s new districts will each need to contain roughly 84,682 people.
Among the items they need to consider: election boundaries, tract boundaries, social aspects, neighborhood boundaries and just simple shapes.
The commission has also discussed ways to improve the chances of Latino and Hispanic elected representation.
What’s new this year
The commission is operating on a compressed schedule. Census data that was due in March wasn’t available until August because of the pandemic.
Instead of nine months, the panel was stuck with nine weeks to do the same amount of work.
The timeline couldn’t be extended, as many of the commissioners learned during their first meeting, because city law requires new district lines to be set by the end of the year. An extension would have needed to go to voters, but it was too late.
Commission chair Stephenie Smith said the condensed schedule has still been their biggest challenge.
During one of the commission’s meetings, she said: “Typically when we function out of a sense of urgency, those who have historically been overlooked and left behind, that happens again.”
Why redistricting matters
“To me this redistricting is not just about redistricting,” Smith, representing District 1 at-large, told The Star. “It is about how we as community members, as citizens, engage ourselves in the civic process.”
She said it’s important to understand and address systemic racism and oppression.
“We can’t talk about completing our civic duty if we don’t address the historic and current barriers and make it so that some people feel more welcomed into systems than others,” Smith said.
The point of the equity focus, she said, is to acknowledge who has been historically marginalized and then shift practices to get different results.
Commissioner Martin Rucker, representing District 2, said during a September meeting that the key is to ensure “minority representation in everything that we do.”
Commissioner Clinton Adams Jr., who represents District 3, said during a meeting that he believes it’s important to return the district to a 60% Black population.
They’ve worked to develop a common language around their goals and practice transparency. Smith said their commitment to equity will guide and shape their work.
She said it’s important for community members who don’t trust certain government or civic actions to know that their voices matter.
“What we do matters,” Smith said. “Our voices matter.”
How you can participate
Members of the public can submit public testimony online on the commission’s website: https://www.kcmo.gov/programs-initiatives/redistrict. There, you can submit your thoughts through an online form.
Three public comment sessions will be held.
Oct. 2 from 12:00pm – 2:00pm: Robert J. Mohart Center, 3200 Wayne Ave., Kansas City, MO 64109 (Auditorium)
Oct. 4 from 5:30pm – 7:30pm: Northland Neighborhoods, Inc., 5340 N Chouteau Trafficway Kansas City, MO 64119
Oct. 6 from 5:30pm – 7:30pm: Southeast Community Center, 4201 E. 63rd Street, Kansas City, MO 64130 (Gymnasium)
Here’s the agenda for the initial meeting:
- 12:00pm: Brief welcome
- 12:02pm – 12:30pm: Time for attendees to view the walking gallery of failed draft maps
- 12:30pm – 12:35pm: Commissioner introductions
- 12:55pm – 1:00pm: Legal Implications of Redistricting
- 12:35pm -12:55pm: Preliminary Map Presentations by City Planning
- 1:00pm – 2:00pm: Public Comment
You can view the draft maps here.
Who is on the commission
- Stephenie Smith, Chair, At-Large, First District resident, Partner, Sophic Solutions, management and equity consultant
- Pedro Zamora, At-Large, Fourth District resident, President and CEO of Hispanic Economic Development Corporation
- Reid Day, At-Large, Sixth District resident, Attorney, Lathrop GPM
- Mike Kellam, First District, VP for Business Development, McClure
- Martin Rucker, Second District, Construction Industry Owner, Martin T. Rucker Development
- Clinton Adams, Jr., Third District, Attorney, Adams Law
- Vicki Noteis, Fourth District, President, Collins Noteis & Associates, former Director of City Planning and Development for Kansas City
- Dr. Cokethea Hill, Fifth District, CEO, BLAQUE Kansas City, former Fifth District City Councilwoman
- Chris Lewellen, Sixth District, Investor and Restaurateur, The Well Restaurant Group, Lew’s, Charlie Hooper’s
