City seeks public comment on new political map
A public hearing scheduled for Oct. 19 will solicit input on the reapportionment map the city proposed to adjust its political map to population shifts recorded by the 2020 census.
The Hot Springs Board of Directors will hold its regularly scheduled business meeting on Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. The hearing is scheduled to begin before the board considers new business. The city said new business will include an ordinance adopting the 2020 map.
Comments can also be emailed to redistricting@cityhs.net before 5 p.m. on Oct. 18. The proposed map is included in the packet for the Oct. 19 meeting, or can be viewed by visiting https://bit.ly/3FnIoXX.
A 2013 law shifted responsibility for redrawing political lines in municipalities with the city manager form of government from county election commissions to municipalities’ governing bodies. A 2021 law returned the responsibility to county election boards after the next census.
The proposed map the city board will consider later this month is the product of several working maps the city clerk’s office prepared for the board’s review. It keeps all six single-member districts’ incumbents in their current districts and retains District 2 as the lone minority-majority district.
A consent judgment and order U.S. District Judge H. Franklin Waters issued in 1993 created the six single-member districts and one at-large district represented by a mayor. The negotiated settlement followed a lawsuit filed by three African American voters who alleged the city’s four single-member districts and three at-large districts diluted the voting power of African Americans, a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The settlement created a majority African American district in District 2.
The map the board will consider later this month increased District 2’s population to 6,143, an increase of 435 from the population recorded April 1 of last year. That’s the date the U.S. Census Bureau uses to determine where people are living when they are counted for the decennial census.
Expanding District 2 southeast and southwest moves it closer to the 6,321 target population for each district. Dividing the 37,930 population the 2020 census recorded by six determined the per district target number. The city said a district’s population can be 5% lower or higher than the target.
The proposed map expands District 2 south into the District 1 area that extends to Ridgeway Street, eliminating the reverse C-shaped part of District 1 that wraps around Honeycutt Street. The city said last month that courts might take an unfavorable view of the reverse C, as best practices encourage mapmakers to draw compactly shaped districts and discourage irregularly shaped political boundaries.
District 2 would also expand south into the District 5 area bound by Ridgeway to the north, Apache Street to the east, Malvern Avenue to the west and Shawnee Street to the south and the District 6 area bound by Ridgeway to the north, Pauline Street to the east and Apache to the west.
The map also grows Dis
trict 2 into the northwest part of District 5 from Central Avenue west to Third Street.
South is the only direction District 1 can expand, as its north, east and west boundaries are at the city limits. The proposed map increases the district’s 2020 census population of 5,314 to 6,143 by expanding it into the northern part of District 2.
The District 1 boundary at Reserve Street would move south to Convention Boulevard. District 1 would subsume District 2’s northern tip, an area bound by Reserve and Locust streets and East Grand Avenue to the north, Crescent Avenue and Silver and Wade streets to the south, East Grand to the west and Castleberry Street and Gulpha Creek to the east.
The proposed map expands District 3 in west central Hot Springs south and west into District 4, increasing its 2020 census population of 5,539 to 6,468. The expansion extends District 3 south to Airport Road and west to Lake Hamilton.
Districts 4 and 5 in southwest and south-central Hot Springs have to be contracted to move them closer to the per-district target population. District 4’s new boundaries would lower its 2020 census population of 7,093 to 6,387. District 5’s proposed footprint would lower its 2020 census population of 7,829 to 6,539.
Annexation contributed to population growth the 2020 census recorded in the two districts.
The city annexed more than 600 acres along the Hot Springs Creek Basin of Lake Hamilton in 2018, putting the new area in District 5. The city’s 2015 annexation of the Twin Points and Burchwood Bay areas expanded District 4.
The proposed map retains most of District 6’s current footprint but would lower its 2020 census population of 6,447 to 6,250.
Districts 2, 4, 5 and the atlarge mayoral position are up for election next year.