Here’s what Franklin’s new voting districts may look like. Is it enough to stop the lawsuit?

The Franklin County commissioners are expected to pick a district map on Tuesday, just ahead of a state deadline.

But it’s uncertain how much it will impact a lawsuit the county faces that says the current districts and system don’t let Latinos pick a candidate of their choice.

The redistricting committee that was put into motion in October presented six final maps to the county commissioners last week.

After four public hearings and a closed-door discussion among the committee members, their top pick would keep east Pasco together in a single district with a western border of Highway 395.

To the east, it would extend past the Pasco city limits into Franklin County, but stops short of dividing the northern portion of the county in two.

Of all of the options, it’s the second closest to matching one offered by the plaintiffs in the voting rights lawsuit.

Cindy Hayes, the chairwoman of the redistricting committee, said the members ranked their top three options. They each gave first choice three points, second got two points and third received one.

The top option earned 10 total points, and coming in second was a map that would create two Pasco districts, something that the Latino voting rights advocates have called for.

The third and fourth option each received five points. Those two are variations on the idea of dividing Pasco between three districts.

One of those would have all three stretch to the county’s northern border. The other would keep the eastern district contained to Pasco.

Commissioner Rocky Mullen wanted the commissioners to also consider a map similar to the one they currently have.

While the east Pasco district maps received support, the committee did not support switching to district-only voting in the general election.

That is the other item that the voting rights advocates want to see change.

While state law requires the board to pick its favorite map before Dec. 30, it won’t be the final time the public gets to weigh in, said County Administrator Keith Johnson.

The county is required to hold a public hearing within 10 days of making the choice, and then after that the board can make adjustments for a final plan.

The county commissioners did not express opinions last week on the proposed maps. They plan to talk about them at Tuesday’s meeting.

Open meetings law

While the process isn’t finished, at least one person voiced concerns about the committee discussions being held in private.

Jeffrey Robinson, chairman of the Franklin County Democrats, said he felt that the public was cut out of the process.

“You didn’t advertise the meetings where the commission was going to vote on what recommendations they were going to give this commission,” he said. “You still denied the public the opportunity to see these commissioners vote on what they were going to recommend to this body.”

Johnson pointed out that most of the maps were shown to the public during the hearings, with the possible exception of one that was developed after the hearings.

The meetings where they made the decisions are not subject to state open meetings law, because it’s an “advisory council” to the commissioners, Johnson said.

There was a 2015 state Supreme Court decision that found that advisory councils are not required to comply with Washington open meetings laws, Johnson said.

“They took votes in the sense of providing their preference, but those votes, were not like the votes of a planning commission,” he said. “It’s simply was a way to collect the collective view of that committee.”

He noted the final decision will be in the hands of the elected county commissioners.