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Forget what I just wrote below about council members turning in their redistricting amendments by 5 p.m. today. I just got a call from someone at City Hall informing me that, no, that deadline was just changed — at the request of the mayor’s office. The Redistricting Commission office confirms: Paula Blackmon, Mayor Mike Rawlings’s chief of staff, sent them an email moments ago that says 5 p.m. today just isn’t enough time. So: The deadline has been pushed to 3 p.m. Monday.
I’ve got calls in to Blackmon for further details; she’s in a meeting at the moment. I’ve also left a message for Redistricting Project Manager Yasmin Barnes Tolliver, who’s also in a meeting and who said this morning that staff needed at least a few days to test the maps for compactness and contiguity, and that she’d initially hoped to get the council members’ submissions posted online by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest to allow time enough for the public to review them before next Saturday’s council meeting. Pushing the deadline to Monday afternoon means the already overworked commission staff will now lose three days to do a lot of work necessary to get those maps out in time. Updates forthcoming.
