Friday, January 18, 2002
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Friday, January 18, 2002 |
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County, city squabble over district maps By JOHN
THOMPSON Columbus may not have had as many problems drawing maps as the Coweta County Commission and the Coweta County Board of Education. During Tuesday's commission meeting, the commissioners heard from county attorney Mitch Powell that state Representative Lynn Westmoreland wants to meet with both groups to discuss the maps they've submitted to the legislators for redistricting. The maps are drawn after each Census, and in the past, the county and school board maps have been the same. This year, the county drew their maps for their five districts and submitted them to the school board and the local legislators. But when the school board submitted their maps to the legislators, the maps were significantly different. Westmoreland suggested a meeting to figure out whether the governing bodies wanted to use the same maps or different ones. The County Commissioners made their feelings known Tuesday. "I'll be happy to meet with the legislators, but it will serve no purpose," said Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter. Hunter said for 30 years both bodies have used the same maps and he was comfortable with the county's district lines. "There's no reason to meet unless we're willing to compromise," he said. Commissioner Robert Wood's fifth commission district is a minority district and has to receive approval from the Justice Department. Wood said the county's staff worked hard on creating the maps, and he did not want to do anything the could jeopardize approval from the feds. But Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Education Richard Brooks put a different spin on the story. Brooks said the last two times that redistricting has occurred, the county and board sat down together and drew the maps. "We were not invited this year to participate in the map drawing," he said. Brooks said he would be more than willing to meet with the legislators to work out differences.
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