This week New York's first Redistricting Commission met for the third time to discuss the hiring of their Co-Executive Directors and the nomination of a commission chair and vice chair. The Republican nominated Commissioners nominated Commissioner Wofford, while the Democrats nominated Commissioner Imamura however it was decided not to vote on a chair as the commission recognized that there were be a deadlock. The commission decided to postpone the voting on the chair until next meeting and to instead focus on writing up bylaws for the commission.
The new bylaws will set up rules for the structure of the commission, nomination process for chairs and vice-chairs, proxy voting rules, and other procedural rules. The newly hired Co-Executive Directors will present drafts of the bylaws at the next meeting. The Co-Executive Directors will also look into obtaining office space, drawing up a budget plan, securing and designing a website, setting up a timeline, and hiring lower level staff. The Commission is also planning to ask the Co-Executive Directors to look into the status of the census counts release and at the current lines to begin considering how the new maps will be drawn.
The Commission set their next meeting for Thursday, November 19th at 10 am. The Redistricting Commission is livestreamed on the State Senate website.