Linn County supervisors reconvene redistricting commission

Linn County supervisors decided Monday morning to reconvene the county's volunteer redistricting commission, giving it less than a month to come up with an election map supervisors had already rejected as unfair.

"It does a great injustice to the rural population," said Supervisor John Harris, R-Palo.

In a letter received Friday, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz rejected for a second time the redistricting map supervisors had unanimously approved in September.  That plan placed parts of Cedar Rapids in four supervisor districts, which Schultz ruled violated a state law stipulating cities be decided into the smallest possible number of districts - three, in Cedar Rapids' case.

Supervisors had argued the fewest-district requirement is just one of several in the law, including provisions that districts be as compact and contiguous as possible.

Schultz's ruling means the county's political map will look much like the one supervisors had drawn up as a worst-case scenario: three Cedar Rapids districts, one that's mostly Marion, and a single big doughnut-shaped district incorporating the county's rural townships.

"I'm flummoxed a little bit," said Supervisor Brent Oleson, R-Marion.

"Instead of an extremely well-thought-out process that our redistricting commission used, it seems like this comes down to a formula," said Supervisor Lu Barron, D-Cedar Rapids.

Schultz's staff enclosed a similar map in their letter that will be imposed on the county if it can't achieve a similar result by Dec. 1. Supervisors decided to re-c0nvene the redistricting commission, although meeting Schultz's conditions mean any changes to the doughnut will be minor.

Harris noted the redistricting commission and supervisors both rejected a three-district Cedar Rapids plan because it "was too Cedar Rapids-centered. The other four districts are all more urban. There could be a lot of votes that potentially sell the rural population short."

Supervisor Ben Rogers criticized Schultz for injecting politics into a non-partisan process. Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids, noted Schultz, a Republican, cited the fewest-districts rule in rejecting Polk County's initial plan, which would have placed two Republican supervisors in the same district.

"To help Polk County they had to be consistent and apply it to Linn County," said Rogers.

Rogers also noted Schultz has campaigned for Republican Cindy Golding in the special election to fill the state Senate District 18 seat.

"The Secretary of State was trying to help Republicans in Polk County, then he's here in Linn County making partisan phone calls" for the Golding campaign, Rogers said. "I'd think the chief election officer should be more sensitive. It just doesn't look right."

Supervisors and the redistricting commissioners will scramble to do their own redistricting rather than simply adopt the Schultz map. There's a four-day requirement for public notice of meetings and hearings, and the calendar is further squeezed by the Veterans' Day and Thanksgiving holidays.

Supervisors also decided against challenging Schultz in court.

"I'm not sure that really serves the citizens well," said Supervisor Linda Langston, D-Cedar Rapids. "I think we need to move on."