County Districting Committee Seeks Input From Lakewood Residents Tonight

Pierce County wants your opinion.

The county’s Districting Committee is seeking public input on proposed changes to County Council district boundaries. The meeting for District 6 is at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Lakewood City Hall’s Council Chambers.

The five-member committee has scheduled meetings in all seven County Council districts.

At the meeting, Districting Master Steven Garrett will make a presentation that includes two maps of the proposed changes.

Those who attend the meeting will have input in “who their neighbors are going to be in their district and who their community will be,” Garrett said. “It’s not who they will be represented by, but who they will be represented with.”

Garrett said that Lakewood, which is currently grouped with DuPont, Steilacoom, part of Spanaway, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, will change some of its neighbors regardless of which scenario is chosen.

"The Districting Master has begun redrawing the boundaries to make sure each district is nearly equal in population," said Karen Seinfeld, chair of the Districting Committee, in a news release. "This is a first draft. We want to hear what people in each area think about these proposed changes."

Option A puts Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont with the base. Option B puts the three cities with University Place and Fircrest and groups the base with Spanaway.

“The boundaries will change from their current boundaries,” Garrett said, “so that means they will be represented with different communities.”

Garrett said that while Lakewood has a strong affinity with the base, JBLM is self-supportive and does not need or draw from county resources.

“It used to be a blank spot on county commissioners’ maps,” he said. “Most of those folks do not vote here–and that is important.”

Garrett said a factor in his decision is whether communities have anything in common with each other. Sometimes, he said, a decision makes no sense, like the one made during the last redistricting in 2002. Then, Graham was split down the middle.

“People weren’t very happy about that,” he said. “That’s the main thing required by law–to not split communities, but it was gerrymandered for political gain, and everyone knows that.”

That results in some “pretty convoluted, odd-looking districts,” he said. “They didn’t really follow the (county) charter in 2002.”

The next scheduled meeting is for District 3 on Wednesday at the Pierce County Central Maintenance Facility in Spanaway.

Garrett said that the redistricting changes have resulted in a lot of reaction, especially in Tacoma, which is currently split four ways. By law, the city can only be split three ways, and he said he is trying to divide the city in a way that makes sense.

“It’s kind of arbitrary the way I have it now, and there are four splits,” he said. “There is no way I can accommodate everything everyone wants, but to some degree, reason and squeaky wheels–and the charter–are things I am working with.”

People have also had strong opinions on whether Sumner should be with Puyallup, he said.

Garrett said that is his job is to bring together natural communities, “but there is no definition for that.”

“Natural communities are really being defined as people show up. It’s really democracy in action–those that show up to give input have a strong say in what their district looks like.”