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Redistricting at the City Level Steps to help keep you in line and out of court by Kurt Spitzer
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n terms of redistricting, the attention of many Floridians is focused on the actions of the state Legislature as they work on the redistricting process for Florida’s House, Senate and Congressional districts based on the 2020 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. But many municipal governments are altering their district boundaries as well. Some city charters provide that municipal elections follow the schedule used by the state and county governments. Those cities should be wrapping up the redistricting process now. But other charters provide for their own schedule, and for those cities that have not yet redistricted their council or commission districts, they should determine the need to realign their district boundaries to equalize populations and ensure compliance with the principle of “one person, one vote.”
38 QUALITY CITIES | FIRST QUARTER 2022
Equalizing the district population is accomplished by changing one or more boundaries of council districts within a city so that each district has a population that is roughly equal to one another while ensuring that other legal requirements are met. Although delivered almost five months late, the 2020 census data has been available since August 2021 and is presumed to be accurate. (Access census data at bit.ly/3onaz2J.) Within the confines of statutes, case law and your city’s charter, redistricting is the prerogative and duty of the legislative body of the city. It’s the city council or commission that has the authority to make adjustments to its district boundaries. The local redistricting process need not be characterized by a contentious, heated debate that spills into the courts, as it sometimes is at other levels of government. By following a few
