The Process for Drawing Austin’s City Council Districts Begins

Now that Austin’s 10 district plan for geographic representation has passed, the real work begins.

Austinites voted last month to change the way city council members are elected. Instead of all members being elected at-large, the city will be split into districts. Ten city council members will be elected through those districts and only the mayor will represent the entire city.

The City of Austin’s Office of the City Auditor, tasked with much of the legwork in implementing the plan, has created a website, 10 One, looking for volunteers to get the process going.

The language in Prop 3 calls for a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission to have the final say in drawing district boundaries for Austin. The auditor will oversee a process garnering 60 qualified applicants; eight members will then be randomly selected to serve on the commission, who will select the remaining six members.

Tonight begins the next step in Austin’s move towards single-member districts. The city auditor’s holding a public forum to brainstorm how to get a large, diverse group of people to apply for the commission.

The forum is tonight at 7 p.m. at One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd.