It’s still unclear what Auburn’s new City Council wards will look like for next year’s election.
The City Council voted unanimously to postpone its vote on redistricting the City’s eight Council wards Tuesday night. The decision to postpone came after a presentation from the Lee County branch of the NAACP urging the Council to add a second ward with a majority of non-white residents, or majority-minority ward.
The Council will revisit the redistricting plan on Jan. 4, 2022, after City staff reviews comments and documents from the NAACP.
The Lee County branch of the NAACP submitted a proposed redistricting map to the City Council Tuesday afternoon containing two majority-minority wards, which the group believes more accurately reflects Auburn’s changing demographics, which have become increasingly diverse since Council wards were last redrawn in 2010.
According to data presented in City Council materials, Auburn’s racial or ethnic minority population grew from 26.5% to 36.8% of the total population from 2010 to 2020, a time when Auburn’s total population grew from 53,380 to 76,143.
The City of Auburn posted a proposed redistricting map online on Nov. 10. The proposed redistricting addresses the lopsided population distribution in the eight wards, which arose as Auburn grew since 2010, when the wards were all relatively equal in population.
As of 2020, the most heavily populated ward, Ward 2, had 13,788 residents in its boundaries, while the least populated ward, Ward 7, contained only 7,528 residents.
What the NAACP and several other community members feel the proposed map does not do is ensure that the City’s growing minority population has equal opportunity for representation on the City Council.
“What drove the NAACP to create the map was the fact that the City proposed a map that did not reflect what our preliminary observations said that the map should reflect,” said Laticia Khalif, first vice president of the Lee County branch of the NAACP.
The City’s proposed redistricting includes one majority-minority ward, Ward 1, which is represented in its current form by Council member Connie Fitch-Taylor, the only non-white member on the Council. While no single ethnic or racial group makes up a majority in the proposed Ward 1, the “coalition” of minority groups accounts for 61% of its population.
“I can’t help but to say that with the current conditions that we have, and even the City staff’s proposed map and all the work that went into it, we the people believe that Auburn’s bright lamp of hope and great quality of life is being put under a basket of underrepresentation,” said Joshua Lewis, pastor at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, who concluded the group’s presentation.
The NAACP’s proposed map contains two majority-minority districts. Those who spoke on behalf of the NAACP felt that creating two majority-minority districts would go a long way in improving representation on the Council, citing statewide trends showing similarities in voting preferences among Black, Latino and Asian voters.
“As we know, minorities are not a monolith,” Lewis said. “However, as we, the NAACP and the public, work alongside you all to look at the political cohesion across minorities along with other factors, our hope is that we are able to remove the covering from the proverbial lamp that is Auburn.”
Taylor pointed out that even if the Council approves a redistricting map that is more equitable, it won’t ensure that the next Council is representative of Auburn’s demographics.
“Even if by chance that the Council agrees upon considering whichever map … this Council still at the end of the day could look just like it looks now,” Taylor said. “You’ve still got to find a candidate for whichever ward it is.”
The redistricting plan has to be approved six months prior to the City’s next municipal election on Aug. 23, 2022. The Council will revisit the plan on Jan. 4, at which point City staff may or may not have had enough time to review concerns from the NAACP and other community members, City Manager Megan Crouch said. If not, the vote may be postponed again.
The Council has four scheduled meetings in the new year to approve a map before the Feb. 23 deadline. A specially called meeting could be arranged to approve a redistricting plan if necessary, Crouch said.
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Evan Mealins, senior in philosophy and economics, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
