Ward 7 Redistricting Task Force Members “Decline” to Advance Standalone Hill East ANC

Ward 7 Redistricting Task Force Members “Decline” to Advance Standalone Hill East ANC

by Larry Janezich

This is complicated, but stick with me. 

Members of the Ward 7 Task Force on Redistricting held a virtual meeting Thursday night to make some preliminary decisions on proposed maps for ANC and single member boundaries in Ward 7.  The members declined to advance four full or partial redesigns of those boundaries.  Among them was Task Force member and former ANC6B commissioner Francis Campbell’s plan for a standalone Ward 7 ANC east of the river.  Task Force Members were asked to indicate whether to advance a whole map proposal, a partial map proposal, or decline to advance a proposal at all.  The group declined to advance Campbell’s proposal when 9 task force members declined and 7 supported it.   

The procedure was somewhat muddled.  At the Task Force’s virtual roundtable last Monday, after getting bogged down in considering the ten maps in front of them, the consensus was to divide the Task Force into two groups, A and B.  The two groups were to meet on Thursday; each group was to be assigned half the maps and determine which ones were worthy of further consideration and to make that recommendation to the full Task Force.  The goal was to only bring two maps back to the full Task Force. 

But what happened instead was this.  A public meeting of the Ward 7 Task Force – characterized as a round table – was announced shortly after 11:00am on Thursday. 

(Under DC’s Open Meeting Act, “Except for emergency meetings, notice of meetings must be provided in advance or not less than 48 hours or 2 business days prior to the meeting, by posting on website or in the office, and in the DC Register.)

At the meeting, four of the proposals were considered by the entire group, which then determined as a whole which maps to move forward.  None were.  Watch the meeting here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiCCnh-WMIU

It was also the consensus at last Monday’s meeting that the public will be permitted to submit additional maps for Task Force consideration until 6:00pm on Saturday, March 19.  In reality, few members of the public submit maps.  The map tool is not user friendly, and most users of the tool made available by the City Council’s Redistricting Committee need the training given to Task Force Members to operate it.

The Task Force will meet at 5:00pm on Monday, March 21 to continue considering maps, and again on Wednesday, March 23. 

One of those likely to be considered is a comprehensive map for the entire ward created by Rob Coomber, former commissioner, ANC 7D01 and current Board Member of Friends of Kingman Park.  See below for the portion affecting Hill East: