New County Council Boundaries OK'd for Pierce County

The Pierce County Districting Committee approved new district boundaries by a 3-2 vote along party lines Tuesday amid gerrymandering accusations by GOP supporters, who vowed to take the plan to court.

Effective for the 2012 County Council election and following 10 years, University Place will be split from Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula in District 7 and become part of the new District 4, along with Fircrest and a substantial portion of Tacoma.

District 7 Councilman Stan Flemming, of University Place, was drawn out of the district he lives in and into District 4. Parts of heavily Democratic Tacoma were redistributed to surrounding districts.

The five-member Districting Committee met at the County-City Building in downtown Tacoma to consider the final boundary proposal developed by District Master Steven Garrett. The hearing room was filled near capacity with GOP supporters, some of whom characterized the process as tainted and the approved boundaries gerrymandered.

Chairperson Karen Seinfeld gave the audience a lengthy recap of how committee members were appointed—two each from the Democratic and Republican parties—who, in turn, chose her as chairperson. The committee also selected Garrett, from a group of contract bidders, to prepare the map.

Committee members had until midnight tonight, Wednesday, July 13, to act. 

Garrett was instructed to keep communities intact while making district populations equal.

“We, along with the public, often did not know what we were going to see until we saw it,” Seinfeld said. “Mr. Garrett appeared to be attempting to be very responsive to the public and the comments we received from the public.”

Seinfeld’s comments did little to assuage the crowd.

Gig Harbor resident Gary Lester characterized the process as a “rush to judgment.”

Dick Muri, a senior member of the Pierce County Council (District 6), agreed.

“This whole process was so rushed. Now we have decisions being made that are going to take effect in literally hours,” Lester said. “The District Master we just found out is affiliated with one of the (political) parties.

“I wonder if there is any provision for delaying this process to allow more time for more examination of candidates, decisions, outcome and options?”

University Place Councilman Eric Choiniere thanked the committee and Garrett and allowed that redrawing political boundaries often leaves at least one party unhappy.

“There’s not going to be a perfect map,” he said. “Somebody is not going to be happy. It is what it is.

“I would hope that whatever the resolution, those who are elected are representing everybody in their district and looking out for the interests of everybody in the county.”

The five-member Districting Committee is responsible for reshaping the seven County Council districts to ensure equal representation throughout Pierce County. Garrett’s plan will be used to assign voters to their new precincts.

Committee members had three choices Tuesday: They could have amended the final map with four votes, approved it as-is with three votes, or have done nothing. In the latter case, Garrett’s proposal automatically would be implemented and remain in effect until the next redistricting, in 2022.

The committee waded through several motions, with Republicans Michael Abernathy and Deryl McCarty arguing unsuccessfully in favor of different plans. In the end, Seinfeld and Sam Ross supported fellow Democrat Kenneth Blair’s motion to approve Garrett’s latest proposal—known as Map E.

McCarty questioned the fairness of the process and, along with many speakers from the audience, raised concerns about partisan politics controlling the decision. He also questioned Deputy Prosecutor Denise Greer’s legal interpretation of the county charter districting rules and Garrett’s considerable authority in shaping a specific outcome.

“It just stretches logic in my mind,” he said. “Why even have a committee if the committee doesn’t have the authority to select among these (various) maps?”

Garrett’s choice as District Master also was questioned. GOP supporters said he should have recused himself because he does similar work for the state Senate and House Democratic caucuses.

Councilman Flemming, who represents University Place and Gig Harbor in District 7, quipped after the meeting that the vote was really 4-2 even though there were only five voting members on the committee.  His reference was to Garrett’s de facto “vote.”

Flemming will continue to represent District 7 from outside his district until his term expires in three years. He said he expects a lawsuit to be filed challenging the Democratic majority’s action because it dilutes Republican influence in traditionally conservative areas.

Garrett said Democrats leveled similar complaints during redistricting a decade ago. Then-County Councilman Calvin Goings, a Democrat, was drawn out of his district. An unsuccessful lawsuit followed and the redistricting ultimately stood.

Garrett defended his mapping efforts, saying he avoided partisan politics—per the committee’s specific instructions—and focused on maintaining community integrity and balancing population among the districts.

“A lot of people are here because of Gig Harbor,” he noted. “We were told not to look at incumbency and not look at demographics. I was supposed to look at compacting districts.”

Other themes emerged during the process. One, he said, was the need to keep the Port of Tacoma aligned with Sumner and Puyallup for economic purposes. Joint Base Lewis-McChord also was a contentious issue and challenge, Garrett said, in making sure it was adequately represented.

Following the meeting, Garrett said most of Tuesday’s outpouring was orchestrated by the state Republican Central Committee.

“They posted it on their website and gave their people a bunch of talking points,” he said.

For his part, Abernathy said the various boundary proposals submitted over the past three months went from non-partisan to partisan. Chairwoman Seinfeld countered there was no way to please everyone.

“It’s up to us to determine which of the negatives is least negative,” she said.

The meeting also highlighted an apparent error in the number of residents assigned to each district—possibly as many as 1,417 in one district.

Walker Allen, a member of the Gig Harbor Republican Club, pointed out a population discrepancy between the various maps.

“There is an error of some kind in either the final map or the earlier maps because there are 1,417 more people in … (the final map). Such an error is simply unacceptable. It’s even more disturbing when it’s in the final map.”

Walker said he became suspicious of the numbers when he saw two districts with identical populations.

McCarty urged the committee to postpone its vote until Garrett resolved the discrepancy. That idea failed, however, when committee members realized they needed to post public notice of a special meeting 24 hours in advance, which would have put their decision precariously close to tonight’s midnight deadline.

Speaking before the meeting, former District 7 Councilman Terry Lee said the Democrats “have it going their way.”

“You’ve got two outspoken Democrats appointed by the county council and you’ve got Karen Seinfeld—who I think the world of—who still is of a Democratic persuasion,” he said. “They’ve plugged portions of Tacoma into three different council districts in an effort, probably, to give Tacoma more leverage at the county level.”

At the same time, Lee said partisan politics generally are not an issue at the county level. They become more of a factor at the state and federal level, he said.

“You do see it come into play around election time, but in the day-to-day regime of county legislation, I don’t think there is a lot of partisan politics at play,” he said. “At least that was my experience.”

The Districting Committee is responsible for redrawing district boundaries every 10 years following the U.S. Census. Redistricting is done to help ensure equal County Council representation across Pierce County.

Equalizing population and not splitting communities for representation purposes are the top concerns of committee members.

“This target variance is what you’d want in an ideal world if you could carve up the districts into seven equal pieces,” Garrett said at last month’s meeting.

“Variance” is the percentage difference between the actual and “ideal”—or target—population of each district. Too much variation between populations can spark a Constitutional legal challenge, Garrett said, by people who believe their district is under-represented.

Pierce County’s approved plan holds the population variance to a high of 2.5 percent in District 1 and a low of minus 2.5 percent in District 4.