BY LANI R. HABROCK
If you’re not fully informed on what your Board of County Commissioners does, you’re not alone. In Oklahoma County, our three county commissioners meet twice per month to exercise general authority over our county’s fiscal affairs. They work to facilitate road and bridge construction and supervise the real estate owned by the county. They work with public schools to provide project support such as paving a parking lot for a school or laying the groundwork for a new playground or stadium.
Commissioners are responsible for the budgeting of important road projects in our counties. A big chunk of this money comes from gas taxes you pay at the pump. This monthly check is divided among the three districts based on the number of county road miles in each commissioner’s district to be used for road and bridge projects. In Oklahoma County, this money is divided equally three ways as each district currently has between 160–200 county road miles.
The Oklahoma County Board of County Commissioners called a special meeting on June 6 to vote on the redistricting process, which will redraw the boundaries of each commissioners’ district and thereby determine how many county road miles [read: money] each district will have to spend over the next 10 years.
While Oklahoma state law requires each district to represent an equitable population, it does not require each district to contain an equitable number of county road miles.
In 2010, the redistricting process in Oklahoma County was relatively transparent and fair. Because the districts were redrawn by the county engineer and county staff members, they were able to ensure that each district had a similar number of road miles and that most school districts and municipalities remained whole.
As both Republicans and Democrats have worked together for equity and transparency in the process, it appears that the new system of delegating redistricting authority to the state Legislature is the antithesis of those goals – effectively taking a public decision out of the hands of the people it most affects.
The consequences of this decision could be seriously detrimental to our community. Public schools placed in new county districts with fewer road miles will not have access to the same resources as schools in districts with more county road miles.
Oklahoma County’s District 1 commissioner, Carrie Blumert, has been known for building strong partnerships with public schools in the communities she represents. Schools such as Millwood, Star Spencer, and an early childhood center in Jones have all benefited from these school-county partnerships spearheaded by Blumert.
Creating non-partisan, citizen-led redistricting advisory committees on the local level would be a simple and cost-effective solution to this glaring problem facing our local levels of government.
to read the full article go to: https://okobserver.org/why-public-participation-in-redistricting-matters/
