Elk County Commissioner Districts & Redistricting - Monday

[Patriot]

What will our commissioners do?

K.S.A. 19-204: Rearrangement of commissioner districts; change in number of districts; approval of electors; limitation on changes; charter counties, exception. (a) Subject to the provisions of K.S.A. 2009 Supp. 19-204b, and amendments thereto, and subject to the provisions of K.S.A. 19-204a, and amendments thereto, the board of county commissioners, on the day of the organization of the board or as soon thereafter as may be possible, shall meet and divide the county into three commissioner districts or such number of districts as is prescribed by resolution of the board, as compact and equal in population as possible, and number them. Such districts shall be subject to alteration at least once every three years. (Emphasis added)

In order to help provide a balance in representation, Kansas law requires that county commission districts be evaluated periodically and that districts be rearranged based on population to equalize the number of people represented in each district.  Such rearrangement is to be done by the Board of County Commissioners and is subject to review/change at least once every three years.  Note that this isn't about election/voting precincts.  That's the job of the county election commissioner.  This is about the total populations in county commissioner districts.

When was this last done in Elk County?  I was told perhaps as far back as 20 or 30 years!  According to a map provided by the county clerk in November of 2011, our current districts are divided along township boundaries, and based on the 2010 Census, our districts are currently populated as follows:

District 1, Ritz:                 754
District 2, Hendricks:       1100
District 3, Liebau:            1028

Well...  as equal in population as possible?  Not using the math I was taught in school.

Notice that this work is to be done "on the day of the organization of the board or as soon thereafter as may be possible". 
I think our Board organizes annually at the first meeting in January to select the Chairman for year.  That would be this Monday. 

Will they be complying with Kansas law & doing their required district rearranging this time around?  Will any of our commissioners step up with a simple, reasonable plan?  We'll see.  Perhaps a call to your current commissioner in the next day or two would be in order.  Better yet, maybe attendance at the Monday meeting would be an idea.  The meeting starts at 1 PM in the county courthouse.