Dakota County Board Adopts Redistricting Plan

Editor's Note: Dakota County Commissioner Tom Egan represents Mendota Heights, Lilydale, Mendota and a portion of Eagan. He was elected to office in 2004 and is now serving his second four-year term. Egan will write regularly to Patch readers about county government.

The Dakota County Board of Commissioners recently adopted a new county commissioner redistricting plan for the next ten years. This is to meet the legal requirement of insuring the principal of "one person, one vote" to the greatest extent possible.  

Counties are able to set their redistricting plans only after congressional and legislative boundaries have been set and municipalities have set their precincts.

A great deal of effort went into this process to make it as fair and reasonable as possible.

Dakota County's population during the last decade has grown to 398,552. This means that each of the seven Dakota County commissioner districts should have a targeted population of 56,936 and not vary up or down from that figure by more than 10 percent.  

The plan which was ultimately adopted by the Dakota County Board meets all legal requirements:

• District boundaries must be created using precinct lines.
• Districts must be composed of contiguous territory.
• Districts must be as regular and compact in form as practicable.
• Districts must be as nearly equal in population as possible.
• Districts may not vary in population by more than 10 percent.

Additionally, the Dakota County Board believes that commissioner districts should follow municipal lines to the greatest extent possible so that one commissioner represents one municipality.  

Many Cities Remain Intact

The Dakota County cities of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Farmington, Hastings, Lakeville, Lilydale, Mendota Heights, Mendota, South St. Paul and West St. Paul will all be kept whole within their respective districts.

As it was ultimately adopted, there will be little change for residents of Lilydale, Mendota and Mendota Heights in the new redistricting plan. They will all continue to be represented by a single commissioner in District Three.

On the southern part of the city of Eagan, there will be certain changes in those precincts represented by District Three and those represented by District Four.  

Certain precincts on the southeast side of Eagan will now be represented by District Four and certain precincts on the southwest side of Eagan will now be represented by District Three.

District Three's former population was 52,611. Under the new plan it will be 56,574 bringing it extremely close to the county's targeted commissioner district population.

Most Face Elections

Elections will be held this fall in six out of seven commissioner districts.

Districts Four and Six must have an election even though it has been only two years since their last election. This is because there has been an increase in their population of more than five percent, which triggers the need for an election. District Two does not have to hold another election because the change in population in that district was less than five percent.

Candidates running for office in districts One and Six will run for two year terms to ensure that county board elections are staggered every two years.

Although the County Board has already approved the redistricting plan, we had until May 1 to approve it. The last day for the county redistricting plan
to be filed is May 8 in order for the plan to be effective for the 2012 county commissioner elections.  

The deadline for voters to apply for revisions to the county commissioners redistricting plan is May 15.  

The state primary election will be held on Aug. 14 and the state general election will be held  Nov. 6.

We believe after a great deal of effort that we have adopted a very reasonable plan that reflects well on the residents of Dakota County.

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