Tucker, Northlake Constituents Critique Voter Maps

Several dozen people turned out at Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library Monday night for a town hall meeting to discuss reapportionment and transportation. Some Tucker and Northlake area constituents expressed their concerns that, under the reapportionment maps that passed the General Assembly today almost straight down party lines, their communities are being “chopped up, sliced and diced.”

Speakers at the meeting, called by DeKalb Super District 7 Commissioner Stan Watson, included state Sens. Steve Henson (D-Dist. 41) and Fran Millar (R-Dist. 40) and House Reps. Scott Holcomb (D-Dist. 82) and Howard Mosby (D-Dist. 90). DeKalb County Public Works Director Ted Rhinehart briefed the group on the proposed transportation referendum. Henson is a member of the Senate Reapportionment Committee. Millar is a member of the joint Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Overview Committee.

Redistricting

According to the maps sent to Gov. Nathan Deal Tuesday for his signature, the Legislature will be reapportioned into 180 House and 56 Senate districts and to create a Republican “supermajority.” Georgia will gain one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, bringing the delegation to 14.

“Everything’s done with an eye to what’s happening politically," Henson said. "Therefore, two-thirds of the districts will be majority Republican."

"Everything we do has to be approved by the courts and must meet the standards of the Voting Rights Act," Millar said. Either the Department of Justice or the federal courts must OK the redistricting map because Georgia is one of nine states which must pass muster under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Tom Ulbricht of the Northlake Community Alliance said, “Northlake is the third economic driver in DeKalb County, yet our community has been split, sliced and diced so that we’ll have to deal with three or four representatives and four county commissioners every time we want to get something done.”

Millar said he had tried to keep the Briarcliff-LaVista corridor intact.

Several of the lawmakers said they believe DeKalb was undercounted in the 2010 Census, on which the redistricting numbers are based. DeKalb lost three state House seats, going from 19 to 16. Gwinnett gained.

A representative from Main Street Tucker Alliance said, “we’re looking at these ‘communities of interest,’ and it’s much easier to go to one [legislator] to get things done. Our welfare and interest is in DeKalb and Georgia. Our [community of interest] has been completely torn apart, our economic center and our educational center.”

Millar said computers have altered the map-generation process.

“Used to be, redistricting would be done in smoke-filled back rooms with an abacus,” he said. “Now we have software that counts down to a one-person deviation. This is why the maps have so many squiggles in them. When you get that precise, you’re going to split communities of interest.”

Mosby, whose district will be combined with that of Dist. 85’s Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield’s under the plan now on the governor’s desk, said, “[reapportionment] is one of the times you help your friends and hurt your enemies.”

By the end of the evening, Watson summed up the redistricting process by saying, “We have changes to make in January.”

The General Assembly is expected to take up reapportionment of school boards and county commissions. If SPLOST IV passes, the county will have to go to seven commission districts, versus nine, and two of them will be superdistricts, Watson said.

Transportation

DeKalb’s legislators defended their overwhelming bipartisan opposition to the HB 277 passage of a statewide transportation bill authorizing a statewide referendum placing a sales tax to fund transportation, saying it will put too much burden on DeKalb County. At the same time, they emphasized the need to end gridlock.

If the referendum passes, DeKalb stands to see the most of any metro county in revenue expenditures, particularly to fund more than $6 billion in MARTA rail connecting the Lindbergh station with the Avondale station and serve the Clifton Corridor and at least begin a project to extend rail service east along I-20.

On Oct. 15, the full ARC roundtable will vote and adopt either the current projects as recommended by the transportation committee or even put forth their own list. The next two months will see more public input, including a Sept. 28 public meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Maloof building in downtown Decatur.

Citizens at the meeting protested that transportation gridlock is hindering business in Atlanta and Georgia. Millar said, “Georgia is a rural-controlled state. First it was South Georgia, now it’s North Georgia. Yet [metro Atlanta] brings in a majority of Georgia's revenue – and exports 37 % of it. I don’t think the transportation referendum will pass, but the issue won’t go away.”

MARTA and the other transit systems in metro Atlanta should be integrated under a regional governance, the legislators said.

Henson predicted the voters, whether the referendum is on the ballot in July or November, also won’t support the measure.

“My only issue is that we’re doing the work of the DOT, and they have veto power, leaving [DeKalb] to pay for it,” Mosby said.

“Two or three DeKalbs are expressing themselves. There is a desire for rail down I-20 that is not coming out in the discussion, and people in my district are upset about this,” Watson said.

“The state has done a poor job of strategic planning, and now they’re looking to [metro Atlanta] to do it,” Mosby said.

For an interactive map of the proposed House districts, click here.

This was the second of three planned town hall meetings on these topics. The third will be co-hosted with Watson and the DeKalb Legislative Community Cabinet on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Salem-Panola Road Library. Watson is a former chairman of the DeKalb House Delegation and founder and current member of the DeKalb Legislative Community Cabinet.