Wednesday evening Joshua Mayor, Joe Hollarn, and myself attended the public hearings held for public input on the county's redistricting plan. The first meeting began at 6:00 p.m. at the sub-courthouse in Burleson. There was probably about 15-20 people in attendance and the most recent maps were out on tables for people to review. Several members of the public spoke about concerns with the changes. Mayor Hollarn addressed the court about disappointment in how they conducted the process which I've noted in my last couple posts here as well. I followed up his remarks with a request to table the action on the map that evening and give it a few days for more people to have a chance to review it. Johnson County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace, Jeff Monk, brought to the attention of the court an easy change to alleviate a possible point of concern regarding the placement of Joshua High School. Keeping it in it's current precinct instead of having it fall into Precinct 4 was going to be a good idea and one that would not affect any other property. The meeting concluded with Judge Harmon expressing his desire that everyone leave feeling as though they were respected in the process. That was yet to be determined.
By the conclusion of the Burleson meeting it became apparent that the court underestimated the public's level of interest since it was just about 7:30 p.m. when we arrived at the court house in Cleburne for the start of public hearing #2 (it was actually unclear from the Judge's action whether it was a new public hearing or a continuation of the previous) which was slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.. Upon arrival there were people assembled in the courtroom waiting patiently. What they didn't have to help pass the time was any maps to view. All the available material was used in Burleson and then brought to Cleburne so in the minutes before starting the Cleburne session the maps were draped over the court rail. The Judge opened the meeting and announced public testimony would be taken after a brief explanation of the task from one of the two consultants the county hired for the project. He also spoke at the Burleson meeting and I found yesterday after conversations with others that I wasn't the only one that found his delivery of information rather condescending.
I was the first to address the court for this session and I chose to do so again because different members of the media and public were in attendance. I pointed out that never in the process were the proposed maps easily available to the public. In some cases they weren't available at all. Nothing was ever posted on the county website in regards to redistricting other than a mention buried in a court agenda or the announcement of the public hearings themselves. I pointed out that the people attending that meeting didn't even have an opportunity to review the material that they were supposedly there to comment on. I reminded them that just a half hour earlier Judge Monk made a discovery that was going to be easy to fix, but was significant. I told them that the way they went about this entire thing did not display to the public open and transparent government. Finally, I asked them again to table the vote on the final map until the minor corrections could be made and for it to be further vetted by local officials and the public.
In the end I was surprised to get what I was after. The court tabled the action until Monday's regular court session. In a rather priceless exchange with the county's I.T. director at the conclusion of the meeting he was asked how difficult it would be to put the map on the county website. I believe his answer was "simple". He was then asked when could it be done and he replied "now". A short time later the map was available on the homepage of the county website. Wow. Amazing what you can accomplish when you want to.
I intend to make sure redistricting is handled differently in Johnson County after the 2020 census. My role in that process is yet to be determined. Stay tuned.
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