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The Process for Drawing Austin’s City Council Districts Begins

Wells Dunbar, KUT News

Now that Austin’s 10 district plan for geographic representation has passed, the real work begins.

Austinites voted last month to change the way city council members are elected. Instead of all members being elected at-large, the city will be split into districts. Ten city council members will be elected through those districts and only the mayor will represent the entire city.

The City of Austin’s Office of the City Auditor, tasked with much of the legwork in implementing the plan, has created a website, 10 One, looking for volunteers to get the process going.

The language in Prop 3 calls for a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission to have the final say in drawing district boundaries for Austin. The auditor will oversee a process garnering 60 qualified applicants; eight members will then be randomly selected to serve on the commission, who will select the remaining six members.

Tonight begins the next step in Austin’s move towards single-member districts. The city auditor’s holding a public forum to brainstorm how to get a large, diverse group of people to apply for the commission.

The forum is tonight at 7 p.m. at One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd.

Wells has been a part of KUT News since 2012, when he was hired as the station's first online reporter. He's currently the social media host and producer for Texas Standard, KUT's flagship news program. In between those gigs, he served as online editor for KUT, covering news in Austin, Central Texas and beyond.
Laura first joined the KUT team in April 2012. She now works for the statewide program Texas Standard as a reporter and producer. Laura came to KUT from the world of television news. She has worn many different hats as an anchor, reporter and producer at TV stations in Austin, Amarillo and Toledo, OH. Laura is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, a triathlete and enjoys travel, film and a good beer. She enjoys spending time with her husband and pets.
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