Portales council chooses redistricting plan

PORTALES — The Portales City Council chose a redistricting plan for the city Tuesday that leaves cleaner boundary lines for each district and adds a few blocks to the city’s Ward A from each of three surrounding districts to achieve population equity.

The city made its choice from three options that were presented in a public hearing that preceded the council’s regular meeting on Tuesday. After Brad Morrison of consulting firm Research and Polling, Inc., presented the options his firm developed for the city’s redistricting, there were no other comments from the public in the hearing.

Ward A councilors Jake Lopez and Veronica Cordova did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

In the regular meeting, the council approved the option that expands District A’s boundaries by taking a few blocks from each of the city’s other three districts, all of which share boundaries with Ward A.

Ward A’s population increases from 2,730 to 2,965 as a result of the boundary nudges, which ensures all four district populations are equitable, within an acceptable range within 5% of the “ideal” average of 3,034 per district.

The goal in all of the Polling and Research options was to “make as small a change as possible” in the districts.

The option that was chosen was designed to “simplify boundaries in the heart of the city” Morrison said, and make the boundary lines “as clean as possible.”

Before the redistricting, Ward A’s population of 2,730 was 10% below the city’s average per district, which was not acceptable, Morrison said.

In the regular meeting, Ward B Councilor Oscar Robinson proposed the city adopt the option that was chosen because of its cleaner boundary lines and because it was more equitable than other options that focused on only one or two of the adjoining districts.

Ward C Councilor Chadrick Heflin said the chosen option was “easy to follow.”

Ward D Councilor Diane Parker said the option was “cleaner.”

Ward D Councilor Jim Lucero said he leaned toward the chosen option but also liked the option that only affected Wards A and B.

The city’s changes to district lines were made necessary by results of the 2020 U.S. Census. Census results showed that Ward A had experienced the greatest loss. The city’s population shrank from 12,306 to 12,137, from 2010 to 2020, Census figures show.

In other action Tuesday, councilors:

• Renewed the contract of City Attorney Stephen Doerr for another four years. The contract was put out for bids, City Manger Sara Austin told the council. Robinson said Doerr “has been a great attorney,” always willing to go beyond the call of duty.

• Recognized Carla Weems, deputy city clerk, as employee of the month.

• Approved payment of over $1.1 million in bills for the month of October.

• Tabled action on a vaccine/testing policy.

• Took no action on adopting a new logo for the city after examining entries in a high school contest. The most popular entry, councilors observed, would have been difficult to work with. Lucero said the proposed design was “too busy for a T-shirt.”