Election redistricting to get outside help

Steve Sebelius

Thursday, March 21, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The numbers have been crunched, the lines have been drawn and re-drawn, the protests have been registered.

But the City Council has decided to take one more step before voting on a proposed redistricting map -- hiring a consultant.

The council voted 4-0 Wednesday, with Councilman Matthew Callister absent, to hire Frederick Kessler. He is a former Wisconsin judge who served as a consultant to the Nevada Legislature's remapping in 1991.

City Manager Larry Barton said Kessler's fee has not been negotiated but that he would be retained on a professional service contract.

On Monday, City Attorney Brad Jerbic told council members Michael McDonald and Gary Reese -- the prime authors of the redistricting plan -- that the map they had devised might not pass muster in federal court.

Under their plan, some districts had widely disparate populations, ranging from 80,000 to 110,000 residents, which Jerbic told the members could violate the "one man, one vote" standard. That rule basically holds that a vote in one district should be equal to a vote in any other.

Monday night, based on Jerbic's comments, minor changes were made to bring the population numbers closer. Now, the greatest population disparity is 14 percent, between Wards 2 and 4. Under the "one man, one vote" standard, populations can vary by up to 10 percent, but have been known to go higher in some cases.

McDonald said the consultant was hired to cover all bases when it comes to the sometimes-controversial redistricting process.

"It may be wasting money, but I want the citizens to know we tried every door" in preparing the plan, he said. "It's for our credibility's sake."

Neither Barton nor McDonald said they knew who suggested Kessler as a consultant, but McDonald said some city staff members have already consulted with the judge in preparing the revised plan.

Kessler, who served as a state trial judge in Wisconsin from 1972 to 1981, resigned to run unsuccessfully for Congress. He served as a reserve judge until gaining re-election to the bench in 1986, where he served for two more years.

Since then, he's worked as a labor negotiator and in 1991 consulted with the Nevada and Wisconsin legislatures, and the Milwaukee school board, on their respective redistricting plans.

Under the proposed Las Vegas map, West Las Vegas would be moved into Ward 3, which currently takes in the eastern portion of the city. This change has brought protests from the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

At a Tuesday news conference at the NAACP office, Chester Richardson, special assistant to President James Rogers, said it would be hard for a single councilman to represent the impoverished areas in eastern and West Las Vegas.

Historically, however, West Las Vegas has been included with the eastern portion of the city, from the inception of the ward system in 1973 until the redistricting in 1989.

In addition, the ward map thrusts McDonald's Ward 1 west to take in the upscale Canyon Gate Country Club neighborhood, which currently sits in Councilman Arnie Adamsen's Ward 2.