A public hearing was held last Tuesday night at the Simpson County Board meeting room in Mendenhall to discuss new supervisor district lines as well as new district lines for Simpson County Justice Court Districts.
Including the five supervisors and the board attorney, about 15 people were present for the meeting to discuss the redrawing of district lines. The county contracted the realignment of districts with Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, CMPDD.
The realignment process is required every ten years in order to maintain a consistent population count within each district. The procedure goes back to the Voting Rights Act, which allows for one person one vote.
David Waide with CMPDD presented the plan. It was followed by an open question and answer session.
The group discussed the effectiveness of the recent census conducted by the U. S. Census Bureau. Neither supervisors nor most private citizens in attendance felt that all the information presented by the Census Bureau was accurate. Waide interjected that CMPDD’s previous attempts to correct inaccurate counts had fallen on deaf ears.
One issue that surfaced after the meeting was the fact that the School Board member representing District 5 would no longer be living in the district from which she was elected. The issue was pointed out to Waide, who said there are no provisions for school districts in regard to district representation as there would be for supervisors or justice court districts.
The redistricting proposal will now be presented at the next board meeting for adoption providing there are no significant changes prior to Tuesday, January 18.
