Voters in Spokane will decide in February 2024 whether to establish a new process for adjusting the city’s political boundaries after each decade’s census.
The city council voted Thursday to send Measure 2 to the ballot. It calls for the city, every 10 years, to develop a seven-member citizen commission to study the new census numbers and then accordingly adjust the lines of the city council districts.
The measure is a scaled-back version of a proposal floated recently by Councilman Zack Zappone.
Zappone’s map was the version adopted during the most recent adjusting of the city council boundaries, but it was controversial. Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel ruled in April that it was a legal map, but also ruled that council members should not be writing the maps. That led to a review of the city’s redistricting process. The council decided last summer to put changes before voters in February.
Zappone recently proposed postponing that vote until a citizen committee could do a full review, redistricting process included, of the city charter. Councilman Michael Cathcart objected to that, setting off a flurry of negotiations, with the council and city staff working over the last week to develop the compromise put before the council on Thursday.
The new version specifies commission members would be appointed by the council and mayor. It lists their required qualifications and prohibitions and gives guidance to help the board do its work. It prohibits council members from submitting maps and notes that should the council and commission not agree, the final decision would be made by a judge.
“I think these changes are reasonable,” Cathcart said. “I think they represent a good kind of a common ground between a couple of the council members here who are talking about some of these changes and making those in this ballot measure and so I’m happy to support it today.”
Zappone also supported it, noting the compromise requires those who create the commission to ensure its members reflect the diversity in the community.
Councilman Paul Dillon also voted for it.
“Redistricting in itself is really supposed to be centered around compromise and that’s what we did here,” he said. “I really appreciate all the community groups that were able to provide feedback and it really is a lesson, I think, in, it’s not always who is right, but it’s what is right.”
Measure 2 will share the February 13 ballot with several local school levies and bond issues.
