Conflict Mars Ward 5 Redistricting

Dispute over changes to task force map

The Ward 5 redistricting process was designed to be objective, transparent and data-driven.

Councilmember Thomas appointed a 30-member task force in July with representatives from every part of the ward. The task force met throughout August and September to re-draw Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) and Single Member District (SMD) boundaries based on natural borders and to ensure that each SMD had 2,000 residents.

How, then, did it all go so wrong?

Instead of an occasion for congratulatory speeches, the final meeting on November 14 was characterized by angry residents seeking answers and Thomas loyalists defending the process. Mr. Thomas himself was by turns combative and conciliatory as he justified the redistricting process and outcome.

A large part of the meeting was devoted to arguing about why no map of the new boundaries had been produced. Instead of a map, Mr. Thomas’ staff distributed a 17-page document of densely-written text describing the new boundaries of 44 SMDs and ANCs.

“The reason you don’t have a map is because you shouldn’t have a map” said Mr. Thomas. He said that showing a map of the proposed new boundaries before the Office of Planning (OP) produced its official map would be premature and lead to confusion.

This explanation did little to placate Bloomingdale resident Donna Broderick. “You have to provide people with something they can see,” she said.

The contentious meeting on November 14th had its roots in October. On October 6, the task force voted to approve a package of new ANC and SMD boundaries. However, over the next several days, this plan was modified by officers of the task force. The task force officers, who were appointed by Councilmember Thomas, consisted of Thomas allies Ayawna Webster, Anita Bonds, Anthony Hood and Bob King. Ayawna Webster, Mr. Thomas’ chief of staff, served as task force Chair.

The officers’ plan leaked from Councilmember Thomas’ office on October 18th and was posted on the Bloomingdale listserv.

Enter task force member and Trinidad resident Geoff Hatchard, who is a professional cartographer with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Mr. Hatchard created and distributed two maps: one that showed the boundaries approved by the task force (see map this page) and one that showed the officers’ plan (see map on page 17). The maps showed significant differences in some areas.

For example, the officers redrew the boundaries of 5 of the 6 ANCs created by the task force. They undid the task force’s decision to unite Catholic University and areas east of the tracks into the same ANC. They combined areas north and south of New York Avenue into the same ANC where the task force had voted to divide them. The officers also redrew the SMD boundaries throughout Gallaudet, Trinidad and Carver Langston at the southern end of the ward.

At the November meeting, Chair Ayawna Webster defended the changes, saying it had been clear all along that the boundaries approved by the task force could change. “I told the task force members [on October 6th] that the language was very rough and we will have to fix the language before we send it to OP,” she said.

Of the approximately 15 task force members present on November 14th, some agreed that the changes were no more than “technical adjustments” to the boundaries they had approved.

For some task force members, however, the changes went too far.

Referring to the boundaries drawn by the officers, task force member and ANC 5C Commissioner Tim Clark said “these are not technical adjustments, these are actually boundary adjustments. This is drastically different from what we as a task force voted on at the last meeting.”

According to Geoff Hatchard, an additional problem with the officers’ plan is that it contains SMDs with populations that significantly deviate from the required range of 1900-2100 people. By Mr. Hatchard’s calculations, 13 out of 38 SMDs in the officers’ plan were outside the required range. He said the task force’s plan had only 4 SMDs outside the range.

Mr. Thomas called Mr. Hatchard’s findings “misinformation” but provided no data or maps to substantiate his claim.

Ms. Webster defended the redrawn SMDs by asserting that OP Associate Director Charlie Richman said they were “fine.” In a phone interview, Mr. Richman disagreed. “The Office of Planning and I personally are not in a position to approve or disapprove any such things,” he said.

Indeed, OP responded in writing to the officers’ plan, noting the need for extensive corrections. Almost 50% of the boundary descriptions required changes that ranged from small to large. In approximately a dozen places, OP said the officers’ intended boundary was unclear and “we’ll need further input to draw the lines correctly.”

The two different plans present a problem for the Council Subcommittee on Redistricting. According to Council rules, the redistricting plan must be approved by the task force. However, at the November 14th meeting, Ms. Webster said the officers’ plan would not be put before the task force for a vote.

Task force member and ANC 5C Commissioner John Salatti is an opponent of the officers’ plan. According to Mr. Salatti, Ward 5 is the only ward to have submitted a redistricting plan that was not approved by its own task force.

Drew Hubbard, clerk for the Subcommittee on Redistricting, sounded tired when asked by phone about redistricting in Ward 5.

Mr. Hubbard said he recently received a redistricting plan from Councilmember Thomas’ office in response to his repeated requests for the task force’s final report.

Mr. Hubbard acknowledged the controversy surrounding the plan, saying “we are set to meet the councilmember and task force on Monday to talk through what happened.” Mr. Hubbard said he assumed the 30-member task force would be invited to the meeting.

Task force members present at the November 14th meeting were divided between those who defended the actions of the officers and those who questioned them.

Task force member and ANC 5C Chairman Ronnie Edwards captured the views of those who said it was important to unite behind their leaders, who had the best interests of Ward 5 at heart. “I did what they asked us to do at the beginning, which is to trust the process,” he said.

Task force member and Brookland Civic Association President Caroline Petti was more reserved in her assessment. “I don’t want to say anything definitively until I see a map,” she said.

No one knows when an official map of the officers’ plan will be available. Mr. Richman said OP would not be able to produce a final map until errors and inconsistencies in the plan were fixed. “We are not in a position to draw the map until we know where the lines should go,” he said.

Ms. Webster said work to fix the boundaries was ongoing.

The Council Subcommittee on Redistricting is scheduled to hear public testimony on the new ANC and SMD boundaries on November 29th and to vote on December 6th. The boundaries are redrawn once every ten years.