Cobb Legislators Call for Compromise on School Board Map

That push, Setzler noted, is a bid to be as responsive as possible to U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross’s deadline for a new map being passed by Jan. 10 — a deadline both Setzler and state Rep. Teri Anulewicz, D-Smyrna, the delegation’s chair, have acknowledged is impossible to meet.

And while Daniel White, the attorney for the Cobb Board of Elections, said he and the plaintiff’s attorneys planned to request an extension until Jan. 22 for adoption of a redrawn map, Setzler said he was still focused on moving as quickly as possible with his proposal.

While state Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-east Cobb, and state Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, had a testy exchange over the process for redistricting in the General Assembly, they were in agreement that it was time for a compromise.

“Both maps are good but they’re not a consensus map,” said Cooper, who repeated her calls from Monday for Anulewicz and Setzler to meet and try to resolve differences in their maps.

Following Tuesday’s meeting, Anulewicz said she was ready to work with Setzler, despite his insistence on moving forward with his map in the Senate.

Some of the issues animating discussion at Tuesday’s meeting centered on Setzler’s map. Wilkerson noted it separates high schools like McEachern in southwest Cobb from its feeder schools, such as Tapp Middle and Compton Elementary schools.

Anulewicz noted the same issue is present in Smyrna, where Campbell, Cobb’s largest high school, is in a different district than some of its feeder schools.

In her map, Anulewicz pointed to the fact that “communities of interest,” such as cities, are not divided by district lines.

Some of Cobb’s Republican legislators, like Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, and Rep. Don Parsons, R-north Cobb, signaled support for Setzler’s map.

Seabaugh said any changes to that map, which Setzler has said keeps intact the majority-Black District 3 required under the 1965 Voting Rights Act while deviating from the ideal district sizes by less than 1% across the entire map, should be easy to resolve.

Democrats such as state Rep. Terry Cummings, D-Mableton, viewed Setzler’s posture as uncompromising and was concerned his intention to move the bill through the Senate goes against a spirit of collaboration.

State Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, asked if there was commitment from both Anulewicz and Setzler to compromise between their two maps.

Anulewicz offered her guarantee, while Setzler was less forthcoming with his.

He said that even though Judge Ross’s ruling in December took issue with Cobb Republican legislators previously bypassing the local legislative process to pass the map she then threw out, it was not on the judge to determine the process legislators followed to pass a map, something determined by previous case law.

Anulewicz said it is impossible to predict how the judge might rule on any redrawn map. She added that it also did not make sense to follow the general legislative process just because previously case law, as Setzler said, made clear the legislature could follow the process it chose without regard for a judge’s ruling.

“That’ll be hashed out in the appellate court,” Anulewicz said. “I think we have room for compromise in these maps that reflects these high school feeder patterns and that also makes sure we are not pairing any incumbents.”