Exclusive meetings or town hall? Stafford tries to involve more residents in political redistricting process

Stafford County has run into another stumbling block when it comes to its redistricting efforts this year.

The county’s Board of Supervisors was to vote on a resolution that would replace a series of committee meetings with a pre-redistricting public information session. The move was designed to make the mandatory political redistricting process more inclusive.

County residents face a major redistricting effort as officials look to redraw the seven political districts used to set voting precincts and to guarantee equal representation on the Board of Supervisors and School Board. In February, the county had planned to host a series of committee meetings with a select group of county residents to assist in the redistricting process.

However, the county has experienced unprecedented delays in receiving the data from the 2020 Census, which is used to not changes in population and demographics.

Multiple residents spoke on the matter and balked at the thought of opening up the process to the community in a town hall meeting format. Many asked the Board to reconsider, saying the change believing it to be a “backward step in transparency and inclusion.”

Ironically, it’s the exact opposite of what was intended by the resolution.

State law requires redistricting to occur every 10 years, where political districts are redrawn, taking into account changes in population. They were last redrawn in 2010, and the pandemic forced officials to delay the redistricting process to 2021. 

In response, the board decided to defer the decision at the suggestion of Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings. The Board decided to defer until the next meeting to make a further look into the resolution.

While the board members were open to the deferral, some took issue with implications made by residents during the public comment time.

Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke took exception to the idea that replacing the series of committee meetings with a town hall meeting is an attempt to close off transparency in the redistricting effort and keep it behind closed doors. Boehmke mentioned that the only meetings held behind closed doors were subjects that required the Board to have closed meetings.

In recent months, closed meeting topics have included the county’s recent legal, including the legal issues raised with a federal lawsuit involving the issues with the All-Muslim Association of America and a cemetery site in North Stafford. Personelle matters and bargaining positions are also regularly discussed behind closed doors, allowed by state law.

The delayed 2020 U.S. Census has hampered the redistricting effort in Stafford County. Data from the decennial census, also delayed by the pandemic, has yet to be passed down to the county, making any decisions based on hard data difficult, officials said.

The Board will question whether to keep the stakeholders or go with the public information session at their next meeting on June 15.

Publisher’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a statement about the county’s legal issues with the All-Muslim Association of America to Supervisor Meg Bohmke.