HUNTSVILLE — Chairman Mac McCutcheon said the Madison County Commission is doing everything it can to come up with a solution after the NAACP threatened a lawsuit over redistricting.
“Right now, what we’re doing, we’re working with our legal department to have conversations with the plaintiffs about the possibility of having a compromise that we could work so that we don’t get into the court,” McCutcheon said. “And we want to do everything we can to try to come up with a solution.”
After Alabama’s congressional districts were redrawn to include an additional minority-majority district, attention has turned once again to the Madison County Commission districts. Currently, there are six districts and six commissioners plus the chairman, who is at-large. District 6 is the only minority district in the county.
McCutchen told 256 Today there is a disparity in representation.
“We have about 18% representation, minority representation, on the Madison County Commission and our minority population percentage would be somewhere of 27 to 28%,” he said. “We could add another member into the commission to bring that representation number up.
“And we’re willing to listen and, and have conversations about that.”
District 6 Commissioner Violet Edwards said the goal of the commission should be to avoid a lawsuit.
“My position is that we are smarter than that, and have this bold leadership on our commission,” she said. “We can sit down and work with this organization and make some hard decisions.”
McCutcheon said they are still working maps and looking at all possibilities. He said it’s not clear if the county would redraw the existing lines to reflect the population or add a seventh district.
“It could go many different ways,” he said “And I don’t know what that would look like.”
But McCutcheon believes a solution can be found.
“We’re looking at the districts, we’re looking at the county as a whole, drawing maps and having conversations so that we can see if there is a solution out there without going into the courtroom,” he said.
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