The Navajo County Supervisors this week approved a plan to set up a Citizens Committee to provide advice on the politically tense process of setting new county boundaries for county supervisors, based on unpublished population statistics from the US Census Bureau.
The five regulators each select a representative to sit on the committee, either by soliciting motions or simply by appointing someone.
The committee will work to draw new lines based on population shifts in the county of 110,000.
The process was made more difficult this year by the pandemic, which both delayed the publication of the 2020 census figures and made it difficult to hold public meetings to discuss the district boundaries.
Regulators will move the boundaries of their own districts, but the much more polarizing task of redrawing the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts will end up on the record of the independent redistribution commission set up by the voters. The voters approved an electoral measure that took the redistribution out of the hands of the state parliament and instead assigned the task of the supposedly non-partisan commission. However, the Commission has already been haunted by repeated volleys from political parties over who is on the Commission and its staff.
The process for both the state and the county is easier in some ways this year, as the state no longer needs to get approval from the US Department of Justice to redistribute cards. For years, Arizona was forced to submit restructuring plans to the Justice Department as court rulings indicated that lawmakers had drawn district boundaries in a way that restricted the political influence of minorities such as Native Americans and Hispanics. However, following the 2010 census, the US Supreme Court removed the need for “pre-approval” by the Justice Department.
The regulators briefly discussed whether the county should solicit proposals from the public to participate in the advisory committee. The ground rules prohibit county employees, political candidates, campaign workers, advisors and lobbyists from serving on the committee.
The chairman of the board, Daryl Seymore, suggested an open application process with interviews for the selected people.
However, supervisors Jason Whiting and Alberto Peshlakai both said they would prefer to let each supervisor decide whether to simply appoint someone directly or go through an application and interview process.
The board finally decided to leave the selection process to each superior.
Supervisor Fern Benally said she “doesn’t like” the entire restructuring process because the US census chronically undercounts Native Americans – which diminishes the political power of reservation populations.
“The Navajo are counted every time,” said Benally, whose district largely remains on the Navajo reservation. “Many people do not want to be counted because they are suspicious of the federal government. What can you do about it? We cannot force them to be counted. I just don’t like redistributing – even if you think you’re doing it fairly – I know it’s not fair. But life is not fair. I know that.”
Bernhaft abstained when the other four board members approved the resolution to set up the advisory committee.
“I am not against the motion,” “but I disagree,” said Bernally.
Peter Aleshire covers county government and other issues for the Independent. He is the former editor of the Payson Roundup. Reach out to him at [email protected]
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