Several residents on Tuesday denounced the Chattanooga City Council’s handling of the redistricting process and called for members to restart the procedure entirely.
The comments were made at the first and only scheduled public hearing before the council is to vote on new political maps as early as next week.
During the 30-minute hearing that was scheduled to last up to an hour, speakers overwhelmingly criticized the council for what they said was a failure to engage with the public about drawing new political boundaries based on 2020 census data. Council members have previously said they plan to vote on the nine-district map at their April 5 meeting.
“Whose agenda and purpose has it served for the city council redistricting discussion, report or plans, including the development of the maps, for such limited engagement by so few council members and totally absent of a public engagement until tonight?” said Theresa Turner, co-chair of the Hamilton County Voters Coalition. “Tonight, we’re asking the following, because you have plenty of time before 2025: Let’s restart the redistricting process in the city, let’s include all the city councilors on the committee as a committee of the whole and let’s allow public input at the end of each meeting.”
(READ MORE: Chattanooga City Council’s redistricting process may have violated open meetings laws)