New York State Insider: Albany Bureau: Statement from NYIRC Chair Imamura and Commissioners Benger, Cuevas-Molina, Flateau, and Frazier.

Statement from NYIRC Chair Imamura and Commissioners Benger, Cuevas-Molina, Flateau, and Frazier.

 

We offer a status update on the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission.

 

On January 10, the Legislature notified the Commission that it had rejected both sets of redistricting plans submitted by the Commission.  The Legislature’s notification imposed a January 25 deadline to vote on and submit second maps.  We have repeatedly attempted to schedule a meeting by that date, and our Republican colleagues have refused.  This is the latest in a repeated pattern of Republicans obstructing the Commission doing its job. 

 

We have negotiated with our Republican colleagues in good faith for two years to achieve a single consensus plan.  At every step, they have refused to agree to a compromise.  Most recently, we met again with representatives of our Republican colleagues following the Legislature’s rejection of our first maps, to see if we could reach consensus on a single map.  We then developed and presented to them a new proposal for a consensus plan that tried to address specific areas of disagreement.  Like in December, they again rejected that proposal and have not presented or agreed to make a counterproposal. 

 

In parallel to these negotiations, for the past two weeks we have attempted to schedule a public meeting by January 25 to conduct the Commission’s business, including voting on second maps as well as to inform the public.  Our other colleagues repeatedly rebuffed or ignored our request, and our Commission’s bylaws do not allow us to schedule a meeting without the consent of at least two additional colleagues.  The Republicans are intentionally running out the clock to prevent the Commission from voting on second maps by its deadline. 

 

We are proud to have conducted a public-first process in which more than 4,000 New Yorkers made their voices heard.  This input had a major impact on our deliberations and line-drawing, and we changed more than 87% of the lines in our September maps to our January maps based upon extensive consideration of this public comment.  The Commission has conducted 24 public hearings both in-person and online where we listened to more than 51 hours of testimony from over 630 speakers.  These hearings have had more than 12,000 views online.  The Commission has received over 3300 written submissions, testimony and maps with nearly 4,500 pages of public input from New Yorkers.  

 

We reiterate our commitment to a redistricting process driven by public input and hope that the Legislature will consider the input that the Commission has solicited and collected in its work.  Moreover, we are proud to embody the diversity of New York, as the Constitution calls for, and believe our diversity is reflected in our approach to public input and the line drawing process.  We urge the Legislature to approach their duty in the same spirit.