Legislative Districts for the proposed "Metro" consolidation government must be based on 2000 Census data according to a report to the Metro Charter Commission.
This means that the Districts for the Metro Government would assume that Lakeland had 6,682 residents (rather than 11,000) and act as if Arlington had 2,560 residents (rather than 9,700). All suburbs would have similar disparities, due to the rapid growth of the suburbs since 2000.
A report to the Metro Charter Commission indicated that the 2000 Census data must be used since it it the last year when all areas of the County were counted at the same time. All districts are required to have as equal representation as possible, which would result in extreme disparities in representation.
The proposed Charter must reflect the 2000 Census data which means that in reality the districts will be be extremely unequal since they will reflect 2000 population rather than the actual 2010 population.
This was only a report to the Metro Charter Commission and no action was taken on the report. Hopefully, the proposed Charter would require immediate redistricting based on the 2010 Census. However, the Lakeland area will be severely underrepresented in the original districts.
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