New Taylor City Council districts look mostly the same but have some tweaks to redistribute population.
On Jan. 6, city council district boundaries were changed through the approval of an ordinance that adopts a redistricting map. The unanimous action was taken during a special called meeting last Thursday.
“The point of this process was to rebalance the city’s single-member council districts to the roughly proportionate size under the one person, one vote requirement under the Constitution,” said Gunnar Seaquist, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP attorney, during the map’s most recent review Dec. 9.
According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, the one person, one vote rule refers to the rule that one person’s voting power ought to be roughly equivalent to another person’s within the same state. Taylor’s redistrict pro
Taylor’s redistrict process was prompted due to the 2020 U.S. Census, which counts populations every 10 years. The Census determines governmental districts, as well as changing demographics and how public funds are allocated in communities. The council hired the Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta law firm to perform the process.
“Based on the 2020 Census, Districts 3 and 4 were heavy and 1 and 2 were a little bit light, and so we had to move population out of 3 primarily into 2 and a little bit out of 4 and into 2,” said Seaquist. “We didn’t make any changes to council precinct 1.”
Taylor had an overall deviation of 39.3%. District 2 was approximately 20% under the ideal population of 4,064 citizens, while District 3 was approximately 20% over the ideal size.
“We were able to get the City Council districts back into balance,” said Seaquist. “We have a total maximum deviation under this plan of 7.16%, which is well within the 10% that we are looking for under the Constitutional standard.”
Taylor had an initial redistricting workshop Oct. 27. Public hearings took place Nov. 18 and Dec. 9.
The point of this process was to rebalance the city’s singlemember council districts to “ the roughly proportionate size under the one person, one vote requirement under the Constitution.”
- Gunnar Seaquist, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP attorney
REDISTRICTING TIMELINE
OCT. 27
At the Taylor Public Library, the Taylor City Council received a redistricting presentation and initial assessment of districts based on recently issued 2020 Census data and set the public hearing date.
NOV. 18
At City Hall, the council conducted a public hearing and reviewed a revised map.
DEC. 9
At City Hall, city staff introduced an ordinance for the redistricting map.
JAN. 6, 2022
The City Council adopted the ordinance to approve the redistricting map.
