Trustees approve redistricting map that 'actually rebalances [HCC] as a system'

The Houston Community College (HCC) Board of Trustees voted 8-1 to approve a new voter map at its Wednesday, April 19 meeting, according to reports from Houston-based media outlets.

The map, however, drew criticism from residents in Houston’s Third Ward who claimed the map still keeps the neighborhood divided.

According to Houston NPR affiliate Houston Public Media (HPM), Dr. Reagan Flowers cast the sole dissenting vote for “Map 1A” on grounds it doesn’t make District 4, which she represents on the horseshoe, whole. 

"The board largely voted to select that map as it was the map that caused the least amount of change to the other districts," Flowers said in the report. "How I see it is, it's not the way to make a decision, you don't take the path of least resistance – you take the path of doing what's best." 

The map is for the fall election, and HCC leaders had an August deadline to approve it.

Lisa McBride with the Houston law firm Thompson & Horton LLP is working with the 51-year-old institution on the redistricting process.

The trustee-selected map “actually rebalances you as a system,” McBride said, according to HPM and a major Houston publication.

“It’s a little bit of impact to every single-member district," the Thompson & Horton partner explained. "It’s not so much that it actually would change any election outcome, because we’re talking about very few voters with respect to each single-member district."

HCC is comprised of nine single-member districts, with its largest being District 6 in the western part of the city with 226,000 residents, and District 3 a few miles to the south of Downtown Houston its smallest with 188,000 people, per the 2020 census.

"I stand here today and ask that you as a board in redrawing these lines not disrupt our community, that I've grown to know and love since my birth," Third Ward community member Carl Davis told the trustees in a previous meeting, HPM reported. "I've been a resident of the Third Ward community, please keep it intact."

District 3 holds the portion Flowers had hoped would return to her district.

"Map 1A adheres to our agreed-upon criteria, with as little disruption as possible, not only for District 3, but for all districts across the system," Trustee Dr. Adriana Tamez, who represents the predominantly Hispanic District 3, said, per the Houston Chronicle.