Clark County residents planning to run for office in the August primary or November general elections will have to wait a little longer to find out which voting district they live in.
Following a public hearing Wednesday, the county council split in a 2-2 vote on the proposed B2 district map. Council Chair Karen Bowerman and Councilor Gary Medvigy voted in favor of the B2 map while Councilors Julie Olson and Temple Lentz voted against.
The council will now hold another public hearing beginning at 8:30 a.m. May 4 to consider the map titled Draft Proposal 04-19-2022. That map, which was created by Geographic Information Services staff member Paul Newman at the council’s earlier request, was briefly reviewed and dismissed at an April 19 special meeting.
Lentz’s vote came as little surprise given her previous criticism of the council’s decision to move forward with the B2 map and her support for the 04-19-2022 map. During the April 19 meeting, Lentz said, “We have an alternative that has not been influenced by compromised policymakers. This is the map we should advance.”
The council has faced sharp criticism over its handling of drawing the district boundaries and the larger redistricting process. Medvigy said that criticism is misplaced.
“The criticism this council has received has been unfair, unsupported, vacuous, disingenuous, intellectually dishonest. We didn’t inject ourselves into this. It was handed to us because of a poor charter that created a redistricting committee that was doomed to deadlock,” he said during Wednesday’s hearing.
Medvigy’s support for the B2 map likely came as a surprise to many given his previous comments during a March 30 council meeting where he claimed both the B2 map and voter-approved map were intentionally gerrymandered to move Republican councilors out of their districts.
Map B2, like the voter-approved map, would move Bowerman into District 4, which Medvigy represents. The B2 map also moves Olson from District 2 into District 5. A transitional provision in the charter amendment allows each councilor to continue representing the districts they were elected to until the end of their term, after which they’d have to run in the district where they reside.
“This was a train wreck, but it was not our doing,” Medvigy said.
Olson and Lentz said the council deserves the criticism leveled against it.
“This process has been corrupted since the moment the previous chair interfered with the creation of the redistricting committee. … The criticism this council has received is entirely justified. The fact that we are exhausted by a corrupted process doesn’t mean we should stop trying to correct it,” Lentz said.
Lentz said redistricting decisions should be made in the voters’ best interests, not politicians’ best interests.
In an interview Wednesday, Olson said it’s more important to get a map on the books that will hold up until the next Census in 2030.
“It’s been an extraordinarily frustrating process. But it’s important to get it right. When you look at the 04-19-2022 map, it is the map — the only map — that closely reflects the map the voters adopted in November. … It’s the cleanest of all the maps,” Olson said.
Much of the council’s deliberations were centered on the upcoming elections and the need to have a district map in place ahead of candidate filing deadlines. The auditor’s office will begin accepting candidate filings by mail on May 4. In-person filings will be accepted on May 16.
Auditor Greg Kimsey said his office is preparing for any changes that may result when the council finally approves a district boundary map, whether it’s the B2 map, the 04-19-2022 draft or some other iteration.
Kimsey said the concern is what happens if someone files as a candidate for a council position but ends up living in a different district. Kimsey said his office will be tracking filings and notifying candidates if that happens.
“While we can accept candidate filings through the mail as of Monday, they aren’t actually completed until May 16. If we see that, we can contact them and let them know this is going on,” Kimsey said. “We would contact the person who has given us a declaration of candidacy and ask them if they want us to complete the filing or do they want to retract the filing.”
Several county residents providing public comment during the hearing had hoped the council would adopt the B2 map once and for all. Vancouver resident and former congressional candidate Peter Harrison said the B2 map was the least influenced by political maneuvering.
“We have two maps that are not particularly influenced by political considerations. I personally prefer the map B2. I think that was the most proportionately distributed population between the five districts,” Harrison said.
One caller, identified only as Jason A., said, “This has been a very messy process. … I don’t think there’s any legal trouble the county will get in by passing the B2 map. I hope this process can end today. And the auditor can stop pulling his hair out with frustration.”
