The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on June 22 appointed 20 people – some of whom are familiar faces – to serve on the county’s 2021 Redistricting Advisory Committee.
That body will be tasked with recommending districts to be used in 2023 for election of members of the Board of Supervisors and School Board.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) appointed three at-large members: committee chairman Paul Berry, who chairs the Virginia Latino Advisory Board and is data-intelligence director at Aegis Mobile; Lisa Sales, who chairs the Fairfax County Commission for Women and works for Booz Allen Hamilton; and Bill Bouie, who chairs the Fairfax County Park Authority Board and is president and CEO of Sky Communications Inc.
Nine supervisors appointed the following committee members to represent their magisterial districts: Prashanth Rajan (Braddock), Jimmy Bierman (Dranesville), Richard Chew (Hunter Mill), Bryon Garner (Lee), Alis Wang (Mason), Gerald Hyland, (Mount Vernon), Linda Smyth (Providence), Paul Liberty (Springfield) and Sam Walker (Sully). Hyland and Smyth previously served as supervisors for the districts they are representing.
Supervisors also appointed these members to represent the following groups:
Tim Thompson (Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations), Anne Kanter (League of Women Voters), Karen Campblin (African-American community), Maya Castillo (Hispanic community), Silvia Patton (Asian/Pacific Islander community), Saif Rahman (Arab-American community), Scott Price (Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce) and George Becerra (Northern Virginia Labor Federation).
“This commission will be meeting in the end of August [and] early September and are on a very short schedule of one month,” McKay said. “Certainly there’s few things as important as making sure that redistricting is done in a citizen-driven, transparent way.”
Using pandemic-delayed U.S. Census data set to be received in mid-August, the group from Aug. 30 to Sept. 17 will draw proposed districts and present its final report to the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 19. Following a Nov. 7 public hearing on these plans, supervisors will consider adoption of new districts Dec 7.
County officials encourage residents to draw and submit their own redistricting plans using an online portal and provide feedback on plans proposed by the committee and others.
Supervisors will not entertain redistricting plans that would result in deviations of 10 percent or more between the least and most populated nine magisterial districts.
Officials will take into account existing geographical and political boundaries, such as those of incorporated towns, as well as established communities, and present and planned land use for such communities.
For more information, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/redistricting.