Redistricting Forces Warner to Reconsider Council Bid

A major topic discussed at Thursday evening's City of Douglasville work session meeting was the re-mapping of the city's election district boundaries. Due to the newest numbers released by the U.S. Census Department, a new map has been drawn in order to redefine the wards city council members represent.

In order to change the boundaries, the city council must conduct two meetings which are open to the public. The first such meeting will be on Monday when council members are expected to vote in favor of the new map and charter amendments. (Both the proposed new ward boundary map and the current ward boundary map are attached to this story.) After voting on the new map at both meetings, the city council must then submit it to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval.

One person affected by the re-mapping will be Gary Warner who announced on May 13 that he intends to run for the Douglasville City Council. Read Douglasville.Patch story here.

Warner lives in the Saddlebrook subdivision in Ward 5. Ward 5 is currently represented by Roy Mims and Terry Miller who have chosen to vacate their seats in order to run for mayor. Under the new map, Warner would live in Ward 1, despite living just three houses down and across the street from Mims. Mims and Miller would remain in Ward 5 under the new map.

Under the redistricting, Warner would not be able to run for a city council seat until 2013, and then it would be against Larry Yokey, who currently represents Ward 1.

In that case, Warner has said he will not run against Yockey.

Warner addressed the mayor and city council members during the meeting, requesting they find an alternative solution to the currently proposed map. (The video of his comments has been included with this story.)

During a committee meeting after the work session meeting, council members had a heated debate about the new boundaries for municipal elections. See video here.

Mayor Mickey Thompson, Councilman Roy Mims and Councilman John Schildroth contended because of time limits and stipulations imposed by the Department of Justice, the new map and charter amendments would have to be approved as is.

Councilman Larry Yockey and Councilman Terry Miller questioned whether it would be possible to make modifications to the new map.

It is unclear what consequences the city might face if the re-mapping were delayed.