HomeMy WebLinkAbout1607RESOLUTION NO. I h 0 1
A RESOLUTION of the City Council of
the City of Kent, Washington, relating to the
proposal of the Washington State Redistricting
Commission to redraw the boundary lines for
federal Congressional Districts and state Legislative
Districts and the impacts to the City of Kent by
placing it into the ih Congressional District.
WHEREAS, the City of Kent has reviewed the Washington State
Redistricting Commission's proposals to redraw our state's Congressional and State
Legislative boundaries as a result of the recent census count; and
WHEREAS, the City of Kent recognizes that the Redistricting
Commission must, in redrawing these boundaries, strive to meet equal population
targets for 9 Congressional Districts and 49 State Legislative Districts in a way that
responds to a decade's worth of growth and trends and that, in developing its
proposals, the Commission has made a significant effort to reach out to the public in
this process, including 16 public hearings over the past 4 Yz months, oral comments
from more than 500 people, and written ore-mailed comments from hundreds more;
and
WHEREAS, the City of Kent appreciates the Commission's difficult
task of keeping local political subdivisions whole to the extent practicable, keeping
"communities of interest" intact, and striving for "compactness" and "contiguousness"
-principles that can at times clash and conflict with one another and, further, that this
task becomes even more difficult with a sprawling jurisdiction, such as the City of
Kent, which stretches east to west across several major highway corridors and
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Redrawing of Congressional Districts
"communities of interest" and is thus impossible to contain within one Congressional
or Legislative District; and
WHEREAS, the City of Kent is for the most part supportive of the
Congressional and Legislative redistricting plans offered by Redistricting
Commissioners; however, the City of Kent has a significant concern with the proposal
which takes Kent out of its current 81h and gth Congressional Districts configuration,
placing much of the City in a redrawn ih Congressional District while also keeping a
portion within the gth Congressional District; and
WHEREAS, under this proposal, much of the City of Kent would lie in
a Seattle-dominated ih Congressional District that has served Seattle for decades and
has traditionally and properly geared its members towards addressing Seattle's needs
and while the City of Kent and the City of Seattle do share some similarities, their
needs; issues; challenges; and overall community profiles are very different in many
ways; and
WHEREAS, the City of Kent is extremely concerned that as part of the
ih Congressional District, Kent would have to compete with the City of Seattle on
important issues rather than be recognized on its own as a major employment center
and growing community with its own set of needs and issues that the City believes
there would be too much of a tendency to serve the needs of Seattle first over the
needs of other cities such as Kent; and
WHEREAS, the City of Kent supports the current configuration that
splits it between the 81h and gth Congressional Districts - a configuration that is
maintained within three of the four Congressional Redistricting proposals unveiled on
September 24, 2001; NOW THEREFORE,
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENT, WASHINGTON
DOES HEREBY RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
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Redrawing of Congressional Districts
That the City of Kent urges the Redistricting Commission to address
Kent's concern with respect to the Congressional Redistricting proposal which places
much of the City of Kent within a Seattle-dominated ih Congressional District and,
further, that the Commission approve a proposal which would keep the City of Kent
split across the gth and 9th Congressional Districts -as is currently recommended
within three of the four Congressional Redistricting proposals.
PASS ED at a re~ar open public meeting by the City Council of the City
ofKent, Washington, this d--day of October, 2001.
~
CONCURRED in by the Mayor of the City of Kent this c:::l day of
October, 2001.
J
ATTEST:
BRENDA JACOB , CITY CLERK
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of Resol~n No.
I loo 7 passed by the City Council of the City of Kent, Washington, the dL · day
ofOctober, 2001.
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Redrawing of Congressional Districts