By Scott Pohl, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-955894.mp3
LANSING, MI –
2010 was a census year, and Republicans are in charge of redrawing congressional district boundaries and those for the Michigan House and Senate.
In Ingham County, though, it's another story. Four of the five people redrawing county commission district boundaries are Democrats.
WKAR's Scott Pohl reports on how their work might change the Ingham County Board of Commissioners.
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All 83 counties in Michigan have panels working on redrawing county commission boundaries. State law says those panels will be made up of the county clerk, prosecutor, and treasurer, along with the heads of the two major parties in each county. When census data arrives in the next couple of weeks, those panels have some big decisions to make.
Michigan Association of Counties legislative affairs director Ben Bodkin says the biggest factor these committees must take into account is ensuring that county commission districts have roughly equal populations.
"That is the main criteria," Bodkin says. "They also have to be contiguous, they have to be as nearly square in size as possible, but the key is the population size."
Clerk Mike Bryanton will chair the committee in Ingham County. Bryanton has been Clerk long enough that he chaired this committee 10 years ago, too. He says in 2001, the county paid an outside consultant $40,000 to help draw the boundaries. This time around, the county itself will do the job at less than a tenth of that cost, spending just $3,500 for new software.
It's also possible for the county to save some money by shrinking the Board of Commissioners. Currently, there are 16 commissioners earning a bit more than $11,000 a year. The law says the board must have at least five members.
The only Republican on the committee is the GOP chairperson for Ingham County, Linda Lee Tarver. She thinks strong consideration should be given to a smaller board. At 16, there are more commissioners than county road patrol deputies after last year's cuts. Tarver calls that situation "atrocious".
"You know, I am inflecting some of my own personal concerns with respect to what the county commission has done already," Tarver says. "And with respect to that, and nothing against the commissioners, but we need road patrol, and do we need more county commissioners than road patrol? And I think not."
"Less isn't always better," Clerk Mike Bryanton says. While the board might become smaller, it may not be as small as Tarver would like. "We'll probably be looking at maps, different configurations of maps, for 15, 14, probably if Linda wants us to look at anything smaller than that, she's welcome to offer that, and we will do that."
New boundaries could force commissioners to run against each other. Some incumbents who happen to live close to a current district boundary could find themselves in that situation under newly-drawn maps, in either a primary or a general election.
Tarver says Republican commissioners have talked with her about that, but her goal is to be fair and transparent.
"I want to hear what the Commissioners have to say, but I also want to look at, at the end of the day, we make a decision for the citizens of Ingham County. And so I'm accountable to the people, my neighbors, myself, my husband, my kids, you know, I'm accountable to the people of Ingham County, and that's what I'm looking at."
For his part, Bryanton expresses an appreciation for experienced representation. He doesn't think it's a good idea to intentionally put two incumbents in the same district.
After the census data arrives, the committee has 60 days to complete its work and send new district maps to the Michigan Secretary of State elections bureau. They will stand unless faced with a legal challenge.