By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
A handful of area residents gathered Monday night on the Fort Hays State University campus for the Hays stop in a series of town hall meetings to discuss the ongoing 10-year redistricting process.
The 14 events scheduled over five days were billed as a way for constituents to share criteria they would like to see used in creating new legislative district maps.
But it's been argued the process was rushed, and without readily available Census data, ultimately, the meetings amount to political theater.
Adding insult to the perceived injury, the meeting started late, with microphones not working correctly and a presentation the public could not see.
After a brief about the process and the Census, a representative from the League of Women Voters of Great Bend spoke first to the committee.
"Hearings are important for both the legislators who must make decisions and for the public whose voices may be either stifled or amplified by those decisions," she said. "We appreciate the committee's willingness to devote time to listening across the state but are troubled by the compressed schedule and the very short numbers prior to the start of this tour.
"This situation has made it difficult for ordinary Kansasans to prepare to present pertinent information that will help you in your deliberations. The way these hearings were scheduled, it's not really a listening tour. Rather, it is only a means to paying lip service and give the impression you don't really want to know what your constituents think."
She was also concerned that, without Census data available, more opportunities should be made available to the public to share their ideas and concerns with the committee.
Larry Dreiling, Hays, also shared concerns with the process.
"It doesn't take a genius to understand what this committee's true mission is about," he said. "Creating a reapportionment and redistricting law that further narrows the ability of the minority party to be heard in our state Legislature and diving our current congressional districts to create a single-party state."
Dreiling asked the committee to ensure the maps were created in a fair way that would later stop a lengthy legal battle in the future to correct mistakes made in the process.
Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, said the public's concerns were valid.
"They are absolutely right," said Probst. "This is largely performative. We don't even have the data, so nobody that is in this audience can even talk to us in specific terms about which populations they need to hold together. They don't have the numbers to talk about communities of interest. That's the basis on which we are supposed to draw our political boundaries.
"We gave people less than 10 days notice," he said. "We rushed this out. We had technical problems. We had a sparse audience. It's very clear that this has been mishandled."
After the meeting, he told a Hays Post reporter, "this is bull****."
Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, was more optimistic about the meetings.
"We are getting out to find out what the public desires and what their ideas are," he said.
The Hays stop was the third for the day.
"We have heard pretty well the same thing at every one," he said.
But, Billinger, said whether Census data is available or not, the process is the same.
"I think everybody's got their ideas and what they believe the process needs to do," Billinger said. "I don't think it is going to change anything. At least we are getting started. We are getting out before we get the data, and, at some point in time, we'll start over with data and try to figure out the best way to make things work."
During other stops, he said attendees had talked about an independent group working on the redistricting, as had happened during the last redistricting 10 years ago, but he found flaws with that work.
"If you look at the maps 10 years ago, they were very gerrymandered," he said. "Look at Graham County, not very far from here, they drew a circle around Hill City and a line down the highway."
The meetings are set to continue through the state through Friday.
Census data that will be used during the redistricting process is expected to be released Thursday.