PORT ANGELES — An easterly shift of the Clallam County commissioner districts has been approved, to be effective next year.
County commissioners Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to accept the redistricting plan developed by Districting Masters Gene Unger and Don Corson and selected by the Clallam County Districting Commission.
The new boundaries will move the districts slightly to the east when they take effect in 2012. The change will have no impact on this year’s elections.
None of the sitting commissioners — or the two candidates vying for Steve Tharinger’s soon-to-be vacant seat — will be bumped out of his own district.
John Marrs, chairman of the five-member districting committee, presented a wrap-up of the three-month process at the county business meeting at the courthouse.
“The process went very smoothly,” Marrs said.
The districting commission selected a final districting plan Thursday night after the third and final public hearing on five proposals that Unger and Corson developed by breaking down raw Census numbers from each of the 99 voter precincts in the county.
No hard time
“We had a smattering of public input, which we attributed to the fact that things went so well that it was so boring that nobody was motivated to come and give us a hard time about anything,” Marrs said.
The north-south boundaries between the districts will have a straighter alignment than they do now.
Straight north-south boundaries is part of what the districting commission set out to accomplish.
The boundary line between Commissioner Mike Doherty’s District No. 3 and Commissioner Mike Chapman’s District No. 2 will shift from west Port Angeles to Valley Creek.
The boundary between Chapman’s central county district and Tharinger’s eastern District No. 3 will move from McDonald Creek in Agnew to Boyce Road in Carlsborg.
Tharinger, who is also a freshman state legislator, announced in April that he would not seek another term as county commissioner. Instead, he will focus on representing the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and about half of Grays Harbor County.
The two candidates running for Tharinger’s seat in the Nov. 8 general election — Republican Jim McEntire and Democrat Linda Barnfather — both live in Sequim within the newly drawn District No. 3.
County charter requires a districting commission to change the boundaries every 10 years if the population of the largest district exceeds the smallest district by more than 5 percent.
In the current alignment, the eastern district is 6.13 percent larger than the western district.
Next year, the size of the largest district in eastern Clallam County will be 2.5 percent larger than the smallest district in the middle.
Changes in store for 2012 include:
■ Voter precincts 20 and 25 in West Port Angeles — and voter precinct 17 between the Eighth Street bridges in Port Angeles — will move from District No. 2 into District No. 3.
■ Voter precinct 14 in Port Angeles south of Albertsons and west of Laurel Street will move from District No. 3 into District No. 2.
■ Voter precincts in the Robin Hill and Klahhane areas will move from District No. 1 into District No. 2.
Clallam County grew by 6,879 people between 2000 and 2010, from 64,525 to 71,404, with the largest growth in the Sequim area.
Marrs said the process may become complicated in 2021 if the Auditor’s Office consolidates voter precincts as it has proposed.
“Larger precincts might be difficult to do in the division between the commissioner districts,” Marrs cautioned.
All three county commissioners thanked the volunteer committee and the districting masters, who worked under an $8,500 contract with the county.
“There did not appear to be partisan squabble on the committee, and I think that’s a testament to the work that everyone did,” Chapman said.
“It’s good for our county and good for our future.”
Doherty, who attended the final committee meeting Monday night, said: “For me, it was kind of a Norman Rockwell moment to see this group of citizens independently looking at boundaries to try to achieve one person, one vote, which is so fundamental in a democracy to have equality of your voting power.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
