Councilmembers react to redistricting ruling, opinions divided on appeal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville has new city council maps -- again.

This is the third map imposed this year alone, and this time it came via court order, rather than through city council.

The new map seeks to stop racial gerrymandering, but not everyone is happy with it.

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City Council passed its first map in March.

Civil and voting rights groups challenged it in May, claiming it packed Black voters into four districts, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

“And diminished their influence in the surrounding districts,” said Nick Warren, an attorney litigating the case on the behalf of the ACLU.

In a ruling Monday, the groups suing succeeded in convincing the judge to impose their own map in lieu of the council’s second attempt at drawing district lines.

Warren said the plaintiff’s map keeps four majority Black districts, while also redistributing some Black voters into other districts.

“Elected officials in the districts that used to have, you know, just very small minorities of Black residents will have to pay greater attention to that constituency,” said Warren.

But not everyone is happy with the new map.

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Councilmember Brenda Priestly Jackson (D-District 10) argues her district’s Black voting population will be dramatically increased under the new lines.

“You have probably better than 80 percent of the neighbors are African American. That’s unconscionable and regressive in 2022,” said Jackson.

She argues it furthers racial gerrymandering in her district, even though the whole aim of the lawsuit challenging the council’s map was to reduce districts drawn along racial lines.

“When you increase the percentage of African Americans, you increase the needs because evidence tends to show that there are more seniors in a community with African Americans, there are more neighbors who are socio-economically challenged,” said Jackson.

She’s also now sharing her district with Councilmember Ju’Coby Pittman (D-District 8).

“Put two sitting Black, lady, councilmembers against each other in a district? It’s othering,” said Jackson.

But Councilmember Matt Carlucci (R-Groupd 4 At-Large) argued while the new map creates challenges for some, he believes it achieves a more level playing field for Jacksonville’s diverse population.

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“We gotta be accountable to everybody in Jacksonville. Everybody counts in Jacksonville and that’s what the plaintiff’s map attempted to do,” said Carlucci.

Some councilmembers are already pushing for the city to appeal the ruling, but others argue it could cause further chaos ahead of the March Unitary Election.

The concern is an appeal could impact election officials’ ability to prepare for the election.

Qualifying is next month, and Duval’s Election Supervisor has repeatedly stated he needed to have maps in place by last Friday to have everything ready in time.

The ruling imposing this new city council map came three days later than that deadline.

“We have a lot of tedious and exacting work ahead of us,” said Duval County Election Supervisor Mike Hogan in a written statement.

“Dragging this thing out would be a mistake,” said Carlucci.

Carlucci wants to see the new map remain in place.

He argued even if the city were to win, it would put the election supervisor in an untenable position.

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“I think we should use the plaintiff’s map at least for this election cycle,” said Carlucci.

But the civil and voting rights groups that sued argue their map does increase Black voting power overall, and it’s too late in the game for yet another change in district lines.

“An appeal and other proceedings that cause uncertainty for voters, for candidates, for the Supervisor’s office, is not what’s best for Jacksonville right now,” said Warren.

Mayor Lenny Curry has declined to weigh in on the ruling and the path forward.

Council President Terrance Freeman indicated he stands by the city’s maps and will seek advice from the city’s General Counsel.

Council will meet in a closed-door meeting Thursday to discuss next steps.

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