Redistricting commission adds two subcommittees

By Brandon Martin

The Virginia Redistricting Commission announced the formation of two separate subcommittees during its April 26 meeting.

Both the Budget & Finance Subcommittee and the Citizen Engagement Subcommittee will be responsible for making recommendations to the full commission.

Greta Harris, co-chair for the commission, said the hope is “to divide and conquer” the mounting work which will fall under the newly formed commission’s purview.

“The subcommittees will be working in their areas of focus and bringing back recommendations to the full commission for review and approval,” Harris said. “Each subcommittee will consist of eight voting members that include four legislators representing House and Senate majority and minority parties, and four citizen members representing the majority and minority leadership appointees.”

Members of the Budget & Finance Subcommittee would create a budget to make use of a two-year allocation from the Commonwealth.

“How we will spend that money will be the work of this subcommittee and then to develop and administer a procurement process for consultants that the commission may deem necessary to bring in with our body of work that we will be doing this year,” Harris said, adding that the line item would include legal counsel.

The Citizen Engagement Subcommittee will be tasked with developing and recommending an advertising plan for meetings and public hearings.

Members assigned to each committee are:

Budget & Finance Subcommittee

Co-chairmen Marvin Gilliam and Sean Kumar; State Sen. George Barker, D-Alexandria; State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Forest; Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church; Del. Margaret Ransone, R-Kinsale; Mackenzie Babichenko and Harris.

Citizen Engagement Subcommittee

Co-chairmen James Abrenio and Richard Harrell III; State Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton; State Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Mechanicsville; Del. Les Adams, R-Chatham; Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond; Brandon Hutchins and Jose Feliciano.