Staff Writer
The Salisbury City Council passed a plan to redistrict the city after a 3-2 vote, increasing city council districts from two to five and in doing so Salisbury University effectively gained a district, meaning that students could vote after the thirty day residency requirement.
Councilman Tim Spies opposed the plan to change the districting, saying university students are not ‘true’ residents of the city.
Spies explained that his “no” vote was based on special interest groups controlling city elections.
“Even though the district divisions purpose is to make the playing field level for minorities, I fear that the (well-known) concept of divide and conquer will follow,” he said.
Spies also said his disagreement with the plan is not based on the presence of SU as a significant bloc of voters, but on the overall capacity for outside actors playing a role in city elections.
Spies specifically mentioned the political clout of Salisbury’s landlords.
“In the 2011 elections, fully two thirds of the candidates were mainly funded by landlord dollars, candidates who appeared from the woodwork, never before engaging in city politics,” Spies said.
The move from two large districts to five smaller districts may remedy the councilman’s fears of divide and conquer, but that will only be tested with the 2015 municipal elections.
City districting was last changed in 2012 after demographic shifts noted in the 2010 US Census.
Currently, District One is an African American majority with two representatives, while the rest of the city is in District Two with three representatives.
The plan was intended to guarantee at least two minority representatives on the city council to better represent the interests of District One voters. The new districts will have roughly equal numbers, with at least 50 percent of the population minorities.
The Maryland chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancements of Colored People supported the 2012 redistricting based on its ability to provide minority representation in the city, according to a letter sent from the ACLU to the Salisbury City Council in April 2012. The letter also states single-member, at large districts limit minority representation in municipal districts, owing to “vote dilution” from the at-large system, something intended to be remedied by the new districting scheme.
Mayor Jim Ireton said on his website, “Neighborhoods such as Doverdale, Princeton Homes, Wicomico Village and Moss Hill have become a melting pot of diversity…With time and these new election lines, that diversity will be represented on the Salisbury City Council.”