The Mobile City Council president is backing away as a co-sponsor to Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s redistricting plan days before it will be officially presented to the council for consideration.
Councilman C.J. Small, in a statement Friday, said that while he initially agreed to be a co-sponsor to Stimpson’s redistricting ordinance, he had now decided to “step back.”
“I appreciate all the hard work the administration has put into this process and map over the law few months, but it clearly continues to be of great concern to our citizens,” Small said. “It is important that our citizens know we will take seriously the input they provide over the coming weeks.”
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Small’s comment comes one day after the group, Stand Up Mobile – which is focused on increasing Black voter turnout – accused Stimpson’s redistricting plan of failing to include a fourth council district with at least 52% of its voting-age population Black.
“At this point, being just one or two percentage points short, we have little doubt this is something the mayor and council can and must get done for our citizens, especially with the future of our community and the city is at stake,” the organization’s statement reads.
Stimpson, on Thursday, unveiled his final redistricting plan that will go to the council for further consideration. The plan has four majority Black districts in both overall population and voting-age population. Districts 1, 2, and 3 are well over 60% Black under the plan.
The focus is on District 7, an area in northwest Mobile. Under Stimpson’s plan, the district’s voting-age demographics are proposed to be 50.6% Black, 44.6% white, or a change from the existing split of 46.5% Black-47.9% white.
Stimpson delivered the final draft of his redistricting plan for the council’s district on Thursday in order to beat a February 12 deadline for it be submitted as an ordinance for the council to consider.
Stimpson’s statement on Thursday indicated that Small agreed to be a co-sponsor to the ordinance, before he withdrew his sponsorship on Friday. Two other council members – Joel Daves and Gina Gregory – are listed as the ordinance’s co-sponsors. Gregory is the current District 7 councilwoman.
“I’m grateful two of my colleagues have stepped up to sponsor the ordinance so it can move forward, and I applaud the administration for their willingness to fund a racial polarization study, if approved by the council,” Small said. “I’m hopeful my colleagues will see the value of an independent third-party study, which would allow all of our citizens to feel confident in a final map.”
The mayor’s redistricting plan was submitted after public hearings were held in each of the council’s seven districts. The administration also included online forums and presentations. Interactive versions of the map were also updated daily online.
“Setting electoral districts cuts at the heart of democracy, which is why we began this process with the commitment to provide unprecedented transparency and achieve fair representation,” Stimpson said. “To accomplish this goal, we gave Mobilians many opportunities to participate in the redistricting process. We listened and the map submitted (Thursday) is the product of input and suggestions from the community as well as all seven councilmembers. In this process, we have proven that in the city of Mobile, we are still able to listen to each other, respect each other and compromise to do what is right for the entire community.”
Stimpson said on Tuesday that he was going to submit a redistricting plan that included at least four majority Black districts based on voting age. But some Black pastors and other activists have criticized the mayor for not going far enough, arguing that the only true way to have a majority Black council is to have District 7 at least 52% Black.
Redistricting of the Mobile City Council has drawn plenty of eyeballs in recent weeks, and warnings from the Southern Poverty Law Center about not diluting the city’s Black vote through redistricting.
The issue comes after the 2020 U.S. Census showed Mobile’s overall population demographics at 51.3% Black-40.8% white, a shift from the 50.4% Black-45.5% white in 2010.
Voting age population is tighter. The city, while represented by 55.6% people of color, has a voting-age population split of 48.4% Black-44.4% white.