Meridian committee has plan for new City Council districts. Incumbents may not like it
The Meridian City Council is set to decide soon on the drawing of districts that will determine how three seats will be filled in next year’s election.
And if the map being proposed Tuesday is adopted, it creates a tricky situation for all of the incumbents.
The Idaho Legislature in 2020 passed a law that required cities with populations exceeding 100,000 to elect council members by district rather than at-large. Meridian passed that population threshold in 2020, according to the Census Bureau, forcing the city to draw districts for the 2023 general election.
The city of Boise drew its council maps last spring.
The Meridian council appointed a redistricting committee that held five meetings and two public hearings, and reviewed six drafts of the district map. The committee plans to present its draft map to the City Council on Tuesday.
- District 1 in the plan is in the northwest part of the city, north of Interstate 84 and west of Linder Road.
- District 2 is also north of the freeway and Ustick Road, and west of Loctust Grove Road.
- District 3 is in the center of the city, south of Ustick and surrounding Fairview Avenue.
- District 4 is north of Interstate 84 and east of Main Street, in downtown Meridian.
- District 5 is south of the freeway and on the east side of the city.
- District 6 is mostly the southwest portion of the city, with some areas north of I-84.
The Meridian council is made up of six seats already. In 2023, seats in Districts 1, 3 and 5 will be up for election, and the council members representing those districts will have to live in them.
Only voters in those districts will be able to cast ballots.
In 2025, the even-numbered districts will be on the ballot.
Meridian Councilwoman Liz Strader represents Seat 1 but lives in District 2, according to campaign finance reports. Seat 3 is held by Brad Hoaglund, who also lives in District 2, according to those reports. Seat 5 is held by Jessica Perrault, who lives in District 6, according to the reports.
This means none of the incumbents can run for reelection, unless they move.
Strader, Hoaglund and Perrault did not return phone calls from the Idaho Statesman for comment.
Of the other current council members, Joe Borton lives in what would be the new District 1; Luke Cavenar lives in District 6; and Treg Bernt lives in District 4.
Minutes from a May 20 meeting of the redistricting committee said its members are required to act independently, without regard to the residency of the current council representatives or potential candidates.
“That ought not be part of your deliberation or your consideration,” said Kurt Starman, deputy city attorney for Meridian, at the meeting. “You were charged with looking at this from the kind of a broader community perspective and to be independent in your judgment, without respect to where current elected officials might reside or live or where potential candidates in 2023.”
To follow federal and state law, and local ordinance, districts cannot have a variation in population that is 10% or greater. If districts have greater deviations, that is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause.
Starman said the committee members used election precincts, which are drawn by Ada County and Census data, to establish the new districts. The districts must have six contiguous election precincts apiece, according to the city. City code also requires that the committee members keep communities of interest and neighborhoods together. That gave the panel a little bit of “wiggle room,” Starman said at the May 20 meeting.
The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the map at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall. The council can accept the map or find that it does not meet the law and remand it back to the committee.
This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 9:21 AM.
