Council Redistricting Meeting Likely in August

Redistricting of Westfield’s four Town Council wards will likely occur in August.

Union County Board of Elections Administrator Dennis Kobitz said the town’s ward commission will hold it’s first meeting next month after a consultant hired by the elections board certifies numbers. The lines of the four districts are required to be redrawn every decade following the Census.

“We’re going to be meeting sometime in August,” Kobitz said.

Westfield is one of nine towns countywide that must redraw local legislative districts in the wake of the census numbers. Clark, Summit, Roselle, Elizabeth, Linden Plainfield, Hillside and Roselle Park also have to redraw lines due to having all or partial ward representation.

Under the Census numbers released in February, Westfield's population rose from 29,644 to 30,316.

The lines will be redrawn by a commission consisting of the four commissioners of the county Board of Elections and Town Clerk Claire Gray. Kobitz said the board hired the firm of Remington and Vernick to review the census numbers to help the individual commissions make decisions. Kobitz will be meeting with the consulting firm on July 21 to review their report.

Kobitz said the August meeting will consist of reviewing the proposals from Remington and Vernick, along with electing a commission chair. Kobitz said in the past, commissions have given the chairmanship to the town clerk, but it is possible to give the position to one of the election commissioners. In addition, Kobitz said the commissions will vote to hire himself and Deputy Elections Administrator Joanne Arena as the commission’s staff.

“At the first meeting, if there is no change in the town, they can vote right there that there is nothing to do and everything is within 10-percent of each other,” he said.

Under state law, the individual wards cannot have a variation of 10-percent from each other. Ward lines will remain in place for the 2011 election and any new lines would start in the 2013 Council election. Kobitz said second hearings will be held in September to finalize maps that are not decided at the first meeting.

The last two redistrictings in Westfield have led to controversy over the division of the Cacciola neighborhood between the second and third wards. The historically African-American neighborhood had been in the third ward before it was split in half between the partisanly split third ward and Republican dominated second ward. The second ward - centered predominantly in Wychwood and the Washington School neighborhood – is the only one in town, which spans both the north and south sides. During the 2001 redistricting, the commission kept Cacciola split following proposals to move it entirely to the third ward or to the second ward. The issue has been the subject of federal litigation with regards to the Voting Rights Act.

The third ward – the only in town with a split Council delegation, Democrat Dave Haas and Republican Mark LoGrippo – is considered one of the most politically split in Westfield, along with the neighboring fourth ward. A shifting of the entire Cacciola neighborhood into the ward could change the political dynamics of the district which encompasses Manor Park, the Central Avenue corridor, neighborhoods around Jefferson School and Stoneleigh Park.

Kobitz said the commission hearings will likely be held at the election board’s Elizabeth headquarters in order to conduct multiple town hearings in one day. He said this is based on four out of five ward commissioners being election commissioners.

“What I am really trying to do is to do a whole bunch in one day since it’s the whole Board of Elections,” he said.

The elections board – split equally between Democrats and Republicans – consists of four commissioners appointed by the governor based on advice from the county political organizations. None hail from Westfield.

The board’s current president is John DeSimone, the Clark Republican chairman. The other commissioners are former Kenilworth Republican Chairwoman Mel Harris, former Democratic Springfield Mayor Clara Harelik and Hillside Democrat Marie Oakie, a county employee who is known for singing the national anthem at county freeholder events.

This will be Gray's first redistricting in the clerk's office, along with the first time that Kobitz has overseen the effort. DeSimone was serving on the elections board during the 2001 redistricting.

Kobitz said towns that require more work from the individual ward commissions will have hearing scheduled in town.

Union County 2010 Census Populations