Council Districts

The First Councilmanic District in the southwest corner of Baltimore County is an intriguingly mixed bag of urban and rural, superhighway and scenic back road, sprawling park land and suburban sprawl. For the past four years, Republican Berchie Manley of Catonsville has tried to fulfill the needs of this diverse area and its 100,000 residents, but with scant success. While few doubt her earnestness and diligence, she has isolated herself on the council and thus had little impact on the panel's actions.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Howard County believe they have a chance to win a new seat in the House of Delegates proposed for the area around Ellicott City. The added seat comes as part of a state legislative redistricting map put forth this month by a panel appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, and would mirror Howard's most competitive County Council district — won in a tight race last year by Democrat Courtney Watson. "I think the map gives us some excellent opportunities," said Howard's Democratic Central Committee Chair, Michael C.A. McPherson.

Voters going to the polls Tuesday in Baltimore will have the chance to remake the Baltimore City Council in two ways -- by sending new faces to City Hall and by breaking up the three-member teams that represent each of the council's six districts.Question L, a dry charter amendment placed at the far right on the election ballot, asks voters if they favor replacing the existing six councilmanic districts in the city -- each of which sends three representatives to the council -- with 18 single-member districts.

Ellicott City blogger Frank Hecker has spent countless hours researching and writing about the history of council redistricting in Howard County — a topic he acknowledges is somewhat eye-glazing. "In and of itself, [redistricting] is not that interesting. What makes it interesting is it reflects the underlying politics in Howard County," Hecker, author of frankhecker.com, said Monday over hot chocolate at the Pottery Stop off U.S. 40. Hecker, a sales engineer for a California-based cybersecurity company, spent three to four hours writing each of the more than 20 1,000-word blog posts, which garner between 50 and 100 views.

An effort to make it easier for Republican and independent candidates to win seats on Baltimore's City Council took a major step forward yesterday as the way was cleared for a November ballot question calling for single-member council districts.Currently, three council members are elected from each of the city's six districts. The proposed change would create 18 single-member districts, making it much easier for less well-known and minority party candidates to win.Earlier this month, the city's finance director, William R. Brown Jr., had rejected a 15,159-signature petition -- collected by an organization called Baltimoreans for Fair Representation, which is affiliated with the Republican Party -- to put the single-member district on the ballot.

Redistricting has severely altered the plans of two candidates -- one a Democrat, the other a Republican -- who were seeking City Council seats in the 3rd District.About two weeks ago, the City Council passed a controversial redistricting plan that changed the boundaries of the city's six council districts.Dr. Peter Beilenson, the Democrat, and James B. Brewster, the Republican, soon discovered that their neighborhoods were not included in the new 3rd District map.The new lines placed Beilenson's Guilford neighborhood in the 2nd District and Brewster's Gardenville neighborhood in the 1st. Neither can seek election in the 3rd District because the city charter requires council candidates to live in the districts they hope to represent.

CENSUS FIGURES and history tell us why the Anne Arundel County NAACP thinks a majority-minority county council district is necessary. Anne Arundel is 13.6 percent black, but only one African-American has served on the county's council since charter government began in 1964. All seven current council members are white. But race can't be the sole factor in determining how to represent communities fairly, and racial gerrymandering is not the answer to unfair representation. Moreover, with the county's dispersed minority population, it would seem impossible to contrive a majority- minority district.

WESTMINSTER -- The Carroll Charter Board discussed with the county Board of Elections last night the legal and technical issues involved in creating seven council districts instead of the five originally proposed.Charter Board member Joseph Getty said the county can't be divided into seven districts of ideal size without breaking current voting precinct boundaries because of the disparity in precinct sizes.At three recent public hearings on the charter draft, several residents advocated creating seven or more council districts to provide better representation for all regions of the county.

Members of the Abingdon Community Council appear resigned to the political reality that, while the Abingdon-Emmorton area is a population center for Harford County, it will continue to be divided so other long-established county council districts can remain in place. While there was a move to consolidate the Havre de Grace and Aberdeen districts into a single entity and establish a new district that reflects the relatively new neighborhoods of the Route 24 corridor, this notion appears to have been rejected in favor of ensuring that Aberdeen and Havre de Grace each have their own districts.

Harford County Democrats have decided not to appeal a court decision and will remain shut out of the process that sets council district lines for the next decade. Instead, they are looking to a broad review of the county charter to help protect their party's interests in the future. Democrats, who once dominated Harford, officially became the minority party last year. The party didn't field candidates in several Republican strongholds, and saw their share of the 2010 vote dip below 15 percent - the minimum eligibility standard for participation on the council redistricting commission.

A commission appointed by County Executive Ken Ulman to recommend a way to make the school board more diverse appears to have gotten a lot right, but not all. The panel, which will present its proposal on Monday, voted this week to propose a system in which five of the seven board members would be elected by districts corresponding to existing County Council districts and two would be appointed. Having the county executive choose board members is where the commission, headed by former state schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, went wrong.

As The Sun's editorial noted, Baltimore's September primary ballot is crowded with 63 candidates running for the 14 city council seats ("What should we ask?" July 10). But as usual, the November general election ballot will be largely depopulated. A Democrat will be on the ballot in every district, and in two districts (6 and 9) they will be running unopposed. But the number of "one party" districts would have been much higher if it were not for the Libertarian and Green parties.

Communities that were split up in the last round of redistricting are expected to be reunited under proposed changes to Baltimore County Council boundary lines. The new map would keep all council members in their current districts. A council-appointed redistricting commission will meet Wednesday to discuss the proposals. Members of the commission were not available Tuesday for comment. Among the changes under consideration, according to council members who are familiar with the plan: Parkville, Perry Hall, Reisterstown and Timonium would each be represented by one council member instead of being split between two; Carney would be represented by two instead of three.

Harford County Democrats are complaining because they have been shut out from the panel that will draw County Council district lines using new census data, an exercise they fear will allow Republicans to gerrymander them into oblivion. But the situation is their own fault. A provision of the charter designed to keep small political parties from unduly influencing the process says that to get a seat on the committee, a party must receive at least 15 percent of the total votes cast in the most recent council election.

As Harford County begins its redistricting, a legal provision aimed at limiting the influence of small, single-issue parties is being applied to Democrats, who make up nearly half of the county's registered voters. Democrats, who have seen their power steadily decline in recent county elections — and fielded few candidates last year — are now considered a fringe group under redistricting law. Tuesday night, the Republican-dominated County Council shut them out of the committee that will shape council districts for the next decade.

For months now, members of the Baltimore City Council have been telling Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake what they'd like to see when she draws new boundaries for their districts. Staffers say the redistricting plan she is scheduled to unveil Monday reflects a good-faith effort to divide the population evenly, keep neighborhoods whole and respect the racial makeup of the city, as required by federal law. But critics see political motivations in the map. Changes in East Baltimore could favor a mayoral aide said to be considering a council run this fall.