Council Redistricting Proposal Protects Incumbents, Reunites Some Communities

A proposed plan for redrawing the county’s council districts will likely make residents of several communities happy and seven specific residents a little more comfortable.

The plan, which will be discussed when the county’s first Redistricting Commission meets on Wednesday afternoon in Towson, includes districts that will reunite the previously divided Perry Hall and Reisterstown communities.

None of the council’s seven members, five of whom are freshmen, were moved out of their current districts. Most will find that the proposed changes likely to be recommended will strengthen current districts and possibly guarantee the council's  two Republicans a better-than-fair shot at re-election.

"Everybody was kept in their districts, no one was moved out," said Council Chairman John A. Olszewski Sr.

Ten years ago, the council essentially erased the boundaries of the seven council districts and redrew them in order to create a new district that would strengthen the likelihood of the election of the council's first African-American council member. Those changes also forced two incumbents, Democratic Councilman Vince Gardina and Republican Councilman Wayne Skinner, into one district for the 2002 election.

Olszewski said this time around there didn't appear that anyone "tried to redistrict anyone out (of office)."

Some proposed changes shown to Patch show council districts that change only slightly compared to the wholesale redrawing of districts in 2001.

Robert Latshaw, a Towson real estate broker and sole Republican on the redistricting commission, declined to speak about specific changes but said the moves are logical and don’t represent dramatic shifts.

“No council member had their ox gored as they did 10 years ago,” Latshaw said.

Public Hearings and Virtual Redistricting

The five-member commission last met in Dundalk on April 28 during the .

Since then, the committee has not met together in a group of three or more. To do so would have triggered state Open Meetings Act requirements.

Instead, members say they worked on plans alone, often communicating with their colleagues via emails and phone messages.

Latshaw and Anne Neal, a Democrat appointed to the commission, described the interaction between members as collegial.

"We were all generally on the same page," Neal said, adding that most members agreed that the maps needed "little tweeks."

"It seemed to be a really smooth process," said Neal, a Towson attorney. "People really did not come in with big political agendas. There was no infighting."

Latshaw, the only Republican on the commission, agreed.

"As the token Republican, I was treated as if I were a real person," joked Latshaw, who was once a state delegate.

Latshaw said that while all of the members were selected by individual council members, redrawing the maps "was not overtly political."

Three other members of the commission, Chairman Ed Crizer, Jim Gillis and Ralph Wright did not return calls seeking comment.

The work of the commission was done at one computer terminal inside the council's library. An employee from the county's Office of Information Technology was present to help manipulate the precincts, moving them from one district to another.

Council members interviewed by Patch said they had seen the map the commission is expected to discuss tomorrow.

"None of the council members were in the room when we drew the districts," Latshaw said. "They created the commission to work independently and to have someone in the room while we're talking precincts and numbers, would not have been appropriate."

The commission legally is charged with redrawing the seven districts with an eye on making them substantially the same size in terms of population. The target population for each district was about 115,293 but courts have typically allowed jurisdictions to vary the population by plus or minus 5 percent.

Both Latshaw and Neal declined to discuss specific numbers contained in the proposals.

In general, Latshaw described the proposed changes as "pragmatic as well as political."

Council Districts by 2010 Census Population and changes being considered by the county Redistricting Commission.

A second minority-majority district

One of the last details left to be hammered out centers around moving precincts from the 4th District, represented by Ken Oliver, to Tom Quirk's 1st District.

"We're talkng about which precinct of mine I am going to give him," Oliver said. "He wants (Woodlawn High School) and I want to give him (Featherbed Lane)."

Oliver's district was created in 2001 as the county's first and only minority-majority district. The population in the district is nearly 80 percent African-American.

The map likely to be discussed Wednesday already anticipates that the Woodlawn High School precinct, which is just north of Route 40 West, will be moved into Quirk's district.

The change brings more than 6,000 voters into the district including more than 4,900 African-Americans, according to census and redistricting commission estimates.

Some residents appeared before the commission earlier this year .  The proposed change would create the county's second largest concentration of minority voters  -- about 30 percent — in the 1st District and possibly position it to be the next minority-majority district in as little as 10 years.

"I definitely think it makes councilmanic (District 1) more diverse and that's a good thing," Quirk said of the proposed changes he'd seen.

The changes would make it more difficult for Republicans to win a seat in a district currently seen as a possible swing area.

"It will destroy the possibility of the 1st District ever having any conservative representation," said Berchie Manley, a Catonsvlle resident who is one of five women ever elected to the council and the last Republican to represent the 1st District.

Re-uniting Perry Hall and Reisterstown

Two areas split up in redistricting 10 years ago could be reunited.

Democratic Councilwoman Vicki Almond, who represents the 2nd District, could see two more Reisterstown-area precincts moved back into her district.

Ten years ago, the Reisterstown area was divided, falling into three districts - the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Returning to the 2nd District would be two precincts currently in Councilman Todd Huff's 3rd District. In return, Almond gives up part of Mays Chapel along the York Road corridor to Huff.

"I'm pretty happy with the change," Huff said. "A lof of people in Reisterstown wanted their community in one district. That makes a lot of sense."

Residents in April asked the commission to consider rejoining the community.

"First of all, Reisterstown has been split up among districts 2, 3 and 4 since the last redistricting, and I would encourage you to please try and bring Reisterstown and Glyndon into, I think District 2 is the best fit for that," Noel Levy, a 2006 House of Delegates candidate, said during April 14 testimony. "It's been fun having three councilmen there but I think it's better to try and include it all in District 2 and not split it into three different districts."

Perry Hall, which is represented by Republican David Marks, appears to be slated to be reunited. Currently, the community is split between Marks' district and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins' 6th District.

Dennis Robinson, president of the Perry Hall Improvement Association, asked the commission on April 28 to move two precincts that are currently in Bevins' district into Marks' district.

"It makes it easier for me to effectively advocate for the hundreds of members of the Perry Hall Improvement Association," Robinson said.

Neither Almond, a Democrat, nor Marks, a Republican, returned calls seeking comment.

The changes to the map aren't without their amusing aspects.

The proposed map recommends changes that would move Democratic former Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder out of the 6th District he represented for 16 years and into Marks' district.

Bartenfelder has not spoken publicly about a political future but some on the council have suggested he might want to return to the council. Bartenfelder did not return a call seeking comment.

Marks would lose heavily Democratic precincts in the Loch Raven Village and Hillendale areas. The net effect would appear to make 5th District slightly more favorable to a Republican.

Marks' home in Perry Hall would continue to be connected to the Towson half of the district via a thin strip of precincts along Joppa Road that include Carney, Oakleigh, and the Pleasant Plains Elementary School precinct.

The proposed maps could also settle a 2010 election controversy — namely, which district does Democrat Bill Paulshock live in?

Paulshock, owner of Bill's Seafood on Belair Road in Perry Hall, ran in the 5th District in 2010 claiming that he lived in a house attached to the business. Other Democratic opponents charged that the first-time candidate actually lived in a Kingsville home where his wife and children live. That home was in the 3rd District.

Proposed changes would move the Kingsville Elementary precinct, where the Paulshock family home is located, into the 5th District — the same district that is home to the family business.

Reshuffling the 3rd, 6th and 7th Districts

Moving the Kingsville Elementary precinct moves a large, heavily Republican precinct, from Republican Huff's district to that of fellow-Republican Marks.

"Kingsville and Perry Hall have so much in common," Huff said. "They do a lot with each other's communities."

Still, the changes could weaken what is seen as the council's safest Republican seat.

"Was that one of my concerns?" Huff said. "Without a doubt. I hope in the next election the people will look at what I've done and not the party."

In Bevins' 6th District, the changes help make her district more hospitable to a Democratic candidate. The district, as currently drawn, elected Joseph Bartenfelder, a conservative Democrat, twice. But in 2010, Bevins, a Democrat, defeated her Republican opponent Ryan Nawrocki by about 600 votes — the thinnest margin of all seven council districts.

Bevins gives up four precincts — the bulk of the Back River Neck peninsula – to Olszewski, a fellow Democrat. In return, she picks up two Rosedale precincts north of Pulaski Highway near the city line from the council chairman. She also would get heavily Democratic areas like Hillendale and Loch Raven.

"I don't like giving up my waterfront," Bevins said.

But the freshman councilwoman said she has spent some time driving through the areas that could be added to her new district.

"I see a lot of issues that I am excited to get to work on," Bevins said.

Timeline for Approval

A final timeline for approving the maps has not been set.

By law, the commission must deliver a proposed map to the council by January 1.

Olszewski said that with the commission meeting this week, a map could be delivered to the council before it's next legislative session on July 5. After that, the council is required to hold at least one public hearing on the commission's map.

That hearing could come as early as August with a final vote coming as early as September before the council beings the quadrennial rezoning map process, Olszewski said.