Six months after receiving a benchmark plan for redistricting the City of Petal’s wards, the Petal Board of Aldermen now have a preliminary consulting plan to look over before that process is initiated.
The plan, which would see a slight shift in three of the city’s six wards, was presented at the July 26 board meeting by Richard Donovan, senior planner with Slaughter & Associates Urban Planning Consultants of Oxford. The purpose of redistricting is to ensure that each ward has approximately an equal number of residents so that each ward has the same representation when it comes to voting in elections; to that end, Wards 4, 5 and 6 would need to be slightly altered.
“What we’re trying to do here is get a total population in each of your wards that’s as close to the ideal population as possible,” Donovan told the board. “(Wards) 1, 2 and 3 were all within the (necessary range).
“So we didn’t touch 1, 2 or 3 – it is 5 that needed to give up some population, and then 4 and 6 both needed to gain a little population. So we ended up kind of moving the areas around.”
Under the plan, the area of Trussell Road and Corinth Road would move from Ward 5 to Ward 4. The area of East 7th Avenue and Hillcrest Road would move from Ward 4 to Ward 6.
“This is basically our first go at getting you into balance; by no means are you saying this is something you’re stuck with,” Donovan said. “We’re still in the (preliminary) process; changes can be made.”
The redistricting process is considered every 10 years, after each census. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Petal’s population rose to 11,010, which is up 556 residents from the 10,454 counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.
In January, it was determined the city would need to be redistricted so each ward can reach the ideal population of 1,838 to better comply with the one-person/one-vote principle according to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At that time, Michael Slaughter – owner and founder of Slaughter & Associates, said the population variance of each ward should be at less than 10 percent, and preferably, less than 5 percent, of the ideal population.
The population and makeup of each of the wards is as follows:
- Ward 1: Total population is 1,857 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of 19. White residents make up 67.7 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 19.6 percent, and “other” residents make up 12.7 percent.
- Ward 2: Total population is 1,898 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of 60. White residents make up 77.8 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 14.1 percent, and “other” residents make up 8.1 percent.
- Ward 3: Total population is 1,888 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of 50. White residents make up 77.3 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 12.2 percent, and “other” residents make up 10.5 percent.
- Ward 4: Total population of 1,678 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of -160. White residents make up 73.1 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 16 percent, and “other” residents make up 5.7 percent.
- Ward 5: Total population of 2,024 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of 186. White residents make up 88.8 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 5.5 percent, and “other” residents make up 5.7 percent.
- Ward 6: Total population of 1,681 with an ideal population of 1,838, for a variance of -157. White residents make up 65.7 percent of the ward, Black residents make up 22.1 percent, and “other” residents make up 12.3 percent.
The board of aldermen will look over the plan, with a decision to possibly made by the board’s second meeting in August.
“Again, we’re more than happy to change this; this is just our first take on it,” Donovan said.
Before a plan is decided upon, officials will seek public input, such as in public hearings or meetings to discuss the process with residents. That plan will be put up for public review before being adopted and implemented.
Voter rolls would then be updated accordingly.
“I think last time we did it, (Slaughter) just came in and said he’d be here from 1-4 (p.m.), and one or two aldermen would come by,” Mayor Tony Ducker said in a previous story. “They said, ‘hey, what if we tweaked this, what if we tweaked that?’ Last time, (Slaughter) made the comment that he didn’t want a census to decide who is in office; he wants the people to be able to decide.
“How you do that is, you don’t draw any two aldermen into the same ward or anything like that. So this could be a couple-months process; I would hope by March or April we would have something. If everything stays the same, the rubber wouldn’t really meet the road until the next election, three and a half years from now.”
