Emotional pleas to preserve voting districts, protect against the loss of minority voting power, and a threat of a lawsuit against the city dominated the conversations Oct. 18 between the residents and council members.
New city council district maps are drawn every 10 years after the census numbers are released. The legal firm Bickerstaff has assisted in drawing up the current map options, and there are now nine maps under consideration by the council. The redistricting process began November 2021 and has been discussed at six previous city council meetings in 2022, including a public hearing in May. The redistricting is intended to realign McKinney’s four single-member districts into approximately equal populations.
Two motions were made at the meeting, one to pass Map A and the other to pass Map D-Revised, and they both failed in a 3-4 vote. Councilmembers Justin Beller, Geré Feltus and Patrick Cloutier voted to pass Map D-Revised, while Mayor Pro Tem Rainey Rogers and Councilmembers Charlie Phillips and Rick Franklin voted to support Map A.
Mayor George Fuller voted against both, as he initially voiced support for Map A, but said he was unsure after hearing arguments made during the conversation. Fuller also requested an additional work session to continue discussions about the matter and potentially create another map option for consideration.
Beller said this round of redistricting is the first time since the implementation of McKinney’s four single-member districts that the redistricting map would not require pre-clearance by the Department of Justice, as a result of a change in federal case law due to Shelby County v. Holder. The council must adopt a redistricting map three months before the election in which the new boundaries would take effect, according to Texas election code.
The agenda for the meeting can be found here.
