Panel holds final redistricting hearing

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The chairman of a judicial panel charged with redrawing Missouri's legislative districts acknowledges that the final map won't satisfy everyone, but it will be fair.

"The truth is that we're going to end up with a map drawn by amateurs," said Judge Robert G. Ulrich, chairman of the Missouri Appellate Apportionment Commission. "But with each public hearing that we have, we become more knowledgeable of the interests, needs, perceptions and wishes of the citizens."

The commission, which held its fourth and final hearing Thursday at a Springfield hotel, is required to have final maps for state House and Senate districts completed by Dec. 27.

Ulrich, of the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals, said he foresaw no problems with meeting the deadline. He has scheduled 18 working days for commissioners before then.

As to whether the final map will be widely accepted, Ulrich said: "I expect it's possible that no one will be happy. But we're it, we've got to do it and we will."

The commission is made up of six appellate judges from Missouri's three judicial districts. The judges were charged with redrawing the legislative lines after two citizen panels in August failed to reach an agreement on tentative maps based on 2000 census data. At least four of the six judges will have to approve the maps for the 34-member Senate and 163-member House.

The Springfield hearing was the last of four scheduled by the panel, the most ever. In 1990, a similar judicial panel working on Senate redistricting met only once.

"The law doesn't require any public hearings, but we wanted to afford citizens the right to talk to us," Ulrich said.

Political control

The judicial panel could affect the political party composition of the legislative branch. Democrats currently hold a 87-76 majority in the House after Tuesday's special election.

There are now two vacancies in the state Senate, where Republicans hold an 18-14 majority. A vote has been scheduled for Dec. 11 to replace John Scott, D-St. Louis, who resigned Oct. 1. A special election has not yet been called to fill the seat of Paula Cater, a St. Louis Democrat who died Monday after a lengthy illness.

New census data show that each Senate district should represent about 164,565 people; while each House district should come as close to 34,326 as possible.

Democrats and Republicans have each proposed their own maps for the districts. Party representatives, as well as private citizens, have testified at the public hearings.

"We try to accommodate everyone, but we understand they are biased," Ulrich said.

Meanwhile, Eastern District appellate judge Kathianne Knaup Crane, who served on the commission appointed after the 1990 census, noted that this year is the first time in recent state history that house and senate lines have been redrawn at the same time.

In testimony on the Senate map, Missouri House Speaker Jim Kreider, D-Nixa, said population losses in St. Louis should shift a seat from there to southwestern Missouri. Kreider represents Christian County, the fastest growing county in the state.

Kreider urged commissioners to keep rural Greene, Christian and Webster counties separate from the city of Springfield. The areas' different demographics require different representation, he said.