Wednesday, the Bossier City Council will select a new voter redistricting map that may expand the city’s number of geographical districts from five to seven and may create a second minority-majority district in the city.
A number of potential maps were presented to the council Monday by their creator, LSUS social studies professor Gary Joiner. Joiner has guided Bossier City and Shreveport through four redistricting processes, which occur after the census is collected every ten years.
“If you want to switch from a five to a seven, the real reason would be to balance minority representation so you have two minority-majority districts,” Joiner told the council.
Joiner said that the second district would be a majority African-American district just like the city’s current minority-majority district.
“You can have districts that look minority on paper but it is very tough for them to vote in a minority candidate,” Joiner said.
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Joiner said it’s impossible to create a majority Hispanic district because though the city has enough Hispanic residents to do so, they are spread almost evenly across the city’s districts.
A charter amendment would be required to expand the number of districts to seven, said Bossier City attorney Charles Jacobs. That could come via council vote or voter referendum.
In a seven geographic district scenario, the Council’s at large seats would disappear.
At-large council member Chris Smith said at-large seats give constituents more options for receiving city support.
“I do think the taxpayers of Bossier City have something special when they have 3 council members representing them,” Smith said.
Joiner said each district loses about 3,000 people if the geographic districts expand from five to seven.
The Wednesday meeting at 2:00 p.m. will make time for citizen input just like the Monday meeting, then the Council will vote.
Kendrick Dante writes for the USA Today Network and is a government watchdog reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana. He enjoys cooking, concerts, and content. Email him at kdbrown1@gannett.com or connect on Twitter @kendrickdante.
