Today our story is about redistricting. It is not that long ago and not that far away.
The year was 2002 and elections were planned for August and November for state-wide offices and Congress and U.S. Senate.
The rules insisted that a committee of five people come up with a plan to redistrict Barry County according to shifts in population, just as it’s supposed to do every 10 years, just after census figures are determined.
The redistricting committee was made up of both chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties, and three county-wide elected officials — the prosecutor, the clerk and the treasurer. Mark Englerth was chair of the county GOP, Mel Goebel was chair of the Dems. Sue Vandecar was treasurer, Deb Smith was clerk and Gordon Shane McNeill was prosecutor.
In one of the very few genuine bipartisan efforts I’ve ever seen, Englerth and Goebel came together to work on a redistricting plan that would reduce the eight districts down to five to save taxpayers money in having eight commissioners.
Both Englerth and Goebel publicly presented their plan at a special public conference, outlining in detail where the boundary lines would be and just how their plan would work.
Both asserted that it was awkward to have an even number of county commissioners and that 4-4 ties in votes could result. They also asserted that a county with less than 60,000 in population really didn’t need that many on the County Board.
Both Goebel and Englerth voted in favor of their plan, but it failed because the prosecutor, clerk and treasurer, all county-wide elected officials, voted against it.
The three county-wide elected officials voted for their plan, which would retain all eight districts, and it prevailed on a 3-2 vote.
I was later told that besides not wanting to issue pink slips to three county commissioners, the City of Hastings lobbied long and hard to have its own district, which then would require eight for all of Barry County. Englerth’s and Goebel’s plan suggested the city have its own district, but add a small part of Hastings Township.
Nothing doing.
I’ve been hearing a lot about how flawed our redistricting process is here in Michigan and in other states. I hear tell too many politicians are able to help decide what their districts will look like in the future and many have too much influence on their re-election chances as a result.
If you look up that process in a high school government book, you will find it’s called “gerrymandering,” named after a 19th century Maryland politician named Elbridge Gerry. It seems as though he engineered a process of rigging the map so he and his cronies would enjoy advantages based on geography and population.
It appears that the only way to halt this election rigging that I’m certain continues to exist to this day is to have a special committee made up of non-partisan people.
Whenever local government officials vote on something in which they may be found to have personal interest, it’s called conflict of interest. Whenever they serve on redistricting committees, it’s called gerrymandering.
Let’s put a stop to it.
