Here are important dates for the upcoming Shreveport city council elections:
June 20 is deadline to submit redistricting maps to the Lousiana Secretary of State.
July 20-22 are the qualifying dates for the council races.
Nov. 8 is the primary election for the council elections.
Dec. 10 is the general election for any runoff council electins.
April 10, April 24, and June 14 are the next scheduled council meeting dates.
The demographer hired by the council has met with the seven council members individually to review redistricting plans.
As of today (May 10) the demographer has not been authorized to release any redistricting plans to the public.
Shreveport has lost population since the 2010 census and the population growth has shifted southward.
Additionally, and most importantly, the city's black population is now larger than the white population.
Thus, the district lines of all seven districts will change, some slightly and some substantially.
The $64 thousand question is whether the plan that the council adopts will have four or five majority black population districts.
If a redistricting plan is NOT adopted unanimously, then litigation can be filed to contest the redistricting.
It's time for the proposed plans to be released to the public and for community forums to be held to review the plans.
Before the untimely death of James Flurry, the council had four black council members.
The appointment of Alan Jackson as the interim District E council member the composition changed to five black council members.
Additional delay in publicly starting this process serves no good purpose other than to lead to speculation that the council president hopes to push through a plan with five majority black districts at the last minute.
The upcoming Tues. (May 10) council meeting is a good time for disclosure of the proposed plans and the setting of community forums.