District 4 to lose residents during redistricting

As the Chattanooga City Council begins a redistricting process that could transfer as many as 3,500 East Hamilton County residents outside of Councilman Jack Benson's District 4, the council is asking for resident input on how those boundary changes should be made.

"I think we've got to have full disclosure that we're trying to work with numbers from the center of the population on out," said Benson. "Those on the border may have to go to another district."

Benson said those on the western border of his district are most likely to be affected and that resident ideas or input can be sent to redistricting@chattanooga.gov or addressed by calling 643-6665.

"I hate to see them go," said Benson of the residents he will be losing, "but if they're closer to the heart of their new district than ours, then they'll have fairer representation."

In some ways Benson said having 3,500 more people in his district than other council members can be a disservice to the residents in his district, because it makes it harder for him to address everyone's concerns and issues, he said.

"I don't mind it at all, but my phone rings a lot more than someone with 3,500 people less in their district," he said.

According to Chattanooga City Council management auditor and analyst Randy Burns, redistricting is required by the state every 10 years to ensure that districts have approximately equal populations so that one person's vote is equitable to that of another person's in a different district. District populations can vary by no more or less than 10 percent, he said.

The City Council must submit an approved redistricting plan to the Tennessee Election Commission by Jan. 1, 2012, and the plan will go into effect for the March 2013 City Council elections, he said.

Benson, who participated in Chattanooga's last City Council redistricting effort, said four to five redistricting plan proposals were brought before the City Council at that time and from those plans the best scenario was selected. He expects the upcoming process to follow the same procedure.

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