Ward 6 Will See Its Redistricting Options by November 5 – Maybe Sooner

Redistricting Schedule

• November 3, 2021: Subcommittee will hold hearing on Ward 6 redistricting
• November 5, 2021: Final hearing on redistricting
• Mid-November 2021: Subcommittee mark-up of the ward redistricting bill
• December 7, 2021: First vote by the full Council on the ward redistricting bill
• December 21, 2021: Second vote on the ward redistricting bill
• December 2021: Ward Task Forces (which provide recommendations on ANC redistricting) start meeting
• February 2022: Ward Task Forces report out recommendations
• May 2022: Subcommittee mark-up of the ANC redistricting bill
• June 2022: Council votes on the ANC redistricting bill

Ward 6 Will See Its Redistricting Options by November 5 – Maybe Sooner

by Larry Janezich

Posted October 13, 2021

CM Elissa Silverman came to ANC6B Tuesday night to have an “informed and enlightened” discussion on redistricting.  She chairs the City Council’s Redistricting Subcommittee comprised of herself and fellow Councilmembers-at-Large Henderson and Bonds. 

The unmistakable message was that Ward 6 must shrink and Wards 7 and 8 need to grow.  Since the last census in 2010, Ward 6 has grown from 76,238 to 108,202 – 41%.  Rebalancing so every Ward has the required 86,193 plus or minus 5% means Ward 6 has to give up 17,699 residents to other wards. 

The Subcommittee will hold a virtual Ward 6 Redistricting hearing to hear input from residents on November 3*, a date picked after consultation with Ward 6 CM Charles Allen.  That will be followed on November 5**, by a final Subcommittee hearing on redistricting followed by a mid-November Subcommittee mark-up of the ward redistricting bill.

Silverman said the Subcommittee would likely release 1 to 3 possible redistricting maps for comment prior to the Redistricting Subcommittee’s final hearing on November 5. 

Commissioner Corey Holman expressed concern that Ward 6 residents might be faced with the prospect of testifying on November 5 only two days after the Ward 6 hearing and encouraged Silverman to release the proposed Ward 6 maps before November 5.

Commissioner Krepp was less retrained, saying that her ANC single member district – ANC6B 10 – “is on the chopping block” referring to its potential for being used to increase the size of Ward 7.  “If so,” she added, “the Subcommittee needs to share the maps…not releasing the maps by November 5 would be idiotic, stupid, and not transparent.” 

Silverman said she wasn’t sure what the plan is now but that she hadn’t said expressly that residents won’t see the maps before November 3.   In any event, she said “she tended to remember words like ‘idiotic and stupid’…and the message sent was loud and clear.”

One resident told Silverman that she couldn’t “emphasize strongly enough the desire to keep Capitol Hill together” and asked if it would be possible to create a 9th Ward to achieve the re-balancing of Ward populations.

Silverman said that in order to do so, the Home Rule Charter would have to be changed which is a much larger lift and she hadn’t discussed it, but it wouldn’t be undertaken in this redistricting.  She also said she did not expect passage of CM Henderson’s bill to limit Residential Parking Permits to ANC’s rather than to the entire Ward to occur before redistricting.  

She said that some 70 map proposals had been submitted for Subcommittee review, as the result of a new tool which allows members of the public to draw their own ward and ANC boundaries using the new Census data.  Go here:  https://dcredistricting.esriemcs.com/redistricting/

Samuel Rosen-Amy, Silverman’s Chief of Staff, will make a presentation to ANC6A on the redistricting process at their October meeting on Thursday, October 13, at 7:00pm.  

To register to testify at either the November 3 or November 5 hearing, click on the appropriate Redistricting Hearing schedule here:  https://www.elissasilverman.com/redistricting#FAQ

*To join the virtual hearing on Wednesday, November 3, at 10:00 am go here: https://www.facebook.com/CMElissaSilverman

**To join the virtual hearing on Friday, November 5, at 10:00 am go here:  https://www.facebook.com/CMElissaSilverman