No action yet on county redistricting plan

Winneshiek County supervisors will spend some more time reviewing a map of new county supervisor district boundaries.

The supervisors met with members of the Temporary County Redistricting Committee on Monday, but voted to hold over the district map until at least next Monday.

Committee member Lyle Otte told supervisors the state placed a lot of requirements on any redistricting map.  The final plan approved by the committee was "as fair as possible," said Otte.  Fellow committee member Jon Lubke noted that even though six different maps were studied, the proposals "didn't vary all that much."  Since populations in the five county supervisor districts could only vary by up to 82 people, "there really aren;t that many options," said Lubke.

But supervisor Bill Ibanez said he had too many questions about the redistricting process to vote in favor of the new map on Monday.  "I'm not opposed to it, but I do have questions," he told fellow supervisors.  Ibanez especially questioned the Temporary County Redistricting Committee's practice of refusing to split up wards in the City of Decorah.  Otte and Lubke said that decision was the result of advice from the State of Iowa, but Ibanez said the state law on redistricting was vague on that point.

County officials tentatively agreed to discuss the issue again at 11:30 a.m. next Monday, August 15th.  Winneshiek County must come up with an approved redistricting plan by October 15th.