Michigan redistricting commission unable to vote after members leave meeting
(CBS DETROIT) - After meeting for upwards of three hours, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) did not vote on whether to appeal a panel of judges' ruling. The issue at hand is over Detroit's voting districts.
"In terms of appealing to the Supreme Court I am certainly not in favor of appealing from the financial perspective," Commissioner Rebecca Szetela said at the start of the meeting.
Commissioners gathered for a virtual meeting on Thursday with the intent to decide whether or not to appeal a ruling from a three-judge panel that was handed down last week. The judges determined Detroit's voting districts should be redrawn because the MICRC allowed race to illegally influence the boundaries.
"To quote something that Commissioner Lett said back when we first adopted the maps he said he felt we got it right in terms of Detroit but if it turned out we got it wrong we would fix it we're at the point where we could fix it and I think we should," said Szetela.
The commission decided to enter a closed-door session to discuss the matter privately, but when the commissioners returned to the public meeting, not everyone showed up. That meant the group did not have enough members present to move forward and have a public vote on whether to appeal.
"I find that quite interesting of course since the state and the public is paying us to do this job and they pretty much sabotaged this meeting on purpose-- that's my opinion of course," said Commissioner Richard Weiss.
That frustration was shared by Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who spoke to CBS News Detroit before the MICRC meeting on Thursday and who was a driving force behind the lawsuit to change Detroit's newly redrawn voting districts.
"We can't rely on what is now a completely dysfunctional commission with three new incoming members to do in 120 days what the original commission did not do properly in over a year," said Gay-Dagnogo.
