King County Districting Committee Seeks Public Input at Town Hall Meetings
The King County Districting Committee announced four town hall meeting dates to gather public input on draft maps for redrawing King County Council districts. The Committee is working on finalizing draft maps that will be posted on the Committee website at www.kingcounty.gov/districting in early October.
Before beginning work on the draft maps, the Committee held more than 20 community listening sessions to gather community input and learn about communities of interest.
“The Districting Committee is working to develop draft maps that incorporate information learned from the community listening sessions and reflect all legal criteria that the committee must follow,” said Committee Chair Ann Schindler. “Community input is vital to this work and the Committee looks forward to hearing community perspectives about the draft map proposals.”
The Districting Committee will host four town hall meetings to discuss the plans and gather input:
· Sunday, October 17th at 2pm via Zoom
· Tuesday, October 19th at 2pm via Zoom
· Wednesday, October 20th at 2pm via Zoom
· Thursday, October 21st at 7pm via Zoom
To find out how to participate in a town hall meeting, visit www.kingcounty.gov/districting. Community members can also provide written testimony by emailing districting@kingcounty.gov. Interpretation will be available in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. For additional requests, please email districting@kingcounty.gov.
Following the town hall meetings and further study by the Districting Committee, a single, final district plan must be approved by the Committee. A public hearing is slated be held on the final draft plan on November 30.
The work of the Districting Committee is guided by legal criteria. By law, Council district boundaries must be redrawn after each U.S. Census to make each district as nearly equal in population as possible using the most recent Census data. The new district boundaries must be compact, contiguous, and composed of economic and geographic units. To the extent feasible, the districts must correspond with the boundaries of existing municipalities, election precincts, census tracts, recognized natural boundaries, and preserve communities of related and mutual interest. Population data may not be used for purposes of favoring or disfavoring any racial group or political party.
The County Charter places sole responsibility for redistricting with the independent, citizen Districting Committee. Members of the King County Districting Committee include Chair Ann Schindler, Cherryl Jackson-Williams, Paul Graves, Sophia Danenberg, and Rob Saka. The adopted final district plan will establish the new King County Council district boundaries.
