December 04, 2001|By Larry Carson | Larry Carson,SUN STAFF
After months of political give and take, Howard County's new County Council district boundaries were set last night for the next decade - but not without a final bit of partisan drama.
The bill was approved with seven amendments on a 3-2 party-line vote after the new council chairman, C. Vernon Gray, an east Columbia Democrat, delayed his vote until the other four members recorded their 2-2 tie, then joined the council's two Republicans in killing the bill. Finally, just before the end of the meeting, Gray changed his mind to vote with the Democratic majority.
"It's important to put this to bed and move on," Gray said as the meeting in the George Howard building adjourned. If he had not changed his vote, he said, "this would be hanging over us."
By voting against the amended bill, Gray said, he wanted to defeat the amendments by killing the bill. Under county law, if the council cannot agree on a bill by March 15, the plan recommended Sept. 20 by a seven-member citizens commission dominated by Democrats would automatically take effect.
If the redistricting bill had died by Gray's hand last night, the three-vote council majority that approved the amendments - the two Republicans and West Columbia Democrat Mary C. Lorsung - could have reintroduced its plan next month and voted it into law in February.
The new council districts aren't much different from those the commission recommended in the spring. At issue last night were last-minute amendments proposed by an unusual coalition - Lorsung, and the council's two Republicans, Allan H. Kittleman from the western county, and Christopher J. Merdon of Ellicott City.
Lorsung, who plans to retire at the end of this term, wanted two changes to make her district more compact in her view. The changes will allow her District 4 to keep areas in Fulton north of Route 216 that eventually will become the new Maple Lawn mixed-use development instead of taking new territory north of Route 108.
"My reason has to do with compactness," Lorsung said, explaining that her changes leave her district's population virtually unchanged.
Merdon won a change to keep Font Hill in his district, and Kittleman got to keep 513 residents who live near Interstate 70 and U.S. 29, while giving 504 back to Lorsung's District 4 in a small square bordered by Route 216, Guilford Road, Route 108 and Hall Shop Road.
Two other Kittleman amendments failed when Lorsung voted with fellow council Democrats.
The changes mean the districts will range in population from 47,841 in District 3, which covers North Laurel, Savage and parts of east Columbia, to 50,120 in District 1, covering Ellicott City and Elkridge.
After teaming with Lorsung to win approval of the amendments, both Republicans voted against the bill as a whole, saying district populations vary too much and that some districts are too spread out.
Before the last-minute amendments offered at last week's work session, it seemed that the county's new redistricting commission system had produced a workable plan for shifting County Council boundaries after the 2000 census. The new boundaries will control the next three elections, through 2010.
The Democrats' goal was to strengthen their hold on the three districts (2,3 and 4) that they control and retain control of the council.
Republicans have said their voters are being packed into two districts the GOP already controls (1 and 5) at the cost of numerical equality. Democrats responded that their new districts are within 5 percent of the ideal average size of 49,568 residents, a variation the courts usually allow.
