Activist pushes to redraw city lines

Albany -- Aaron Mair wants Common Council to add two more minority wards and is prepared to fight in court to get them

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, May 18, 2004

An Arbor Hill activist who won a court battle against the Albany County Legislature to increase political clout for the city's growing number of minorities is bringing that same fight to the city.

Aaron Mair took aim at the all-Democratic Common Council by releasing a plan to create another two predominantly minority election wards, something the city claimed wasn't possible when it redrew these districts two years ago.

Mair, who beat the county in federal court last year on the same voting rights issue, said Monday he's ready to sue again if the city doesn't increase the number of wards in which minority voters hold sway in time for the 2005 city elections.

"This is about geography and political choice," said Mair, president of Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens. "How do we get the council to wake up that the urban environment has changed?"
Four of the city's 15 wards -- in Arbor Hill, West Hill and the South End -- have a majority of black and Hispanic residents, and have elected African-American members to Common Council.

Mair said the wards redrawn by the city illegally dilute the voting strength of a growing minority population and protect the power of white incumbents.

His plan to increase the minority districts to six could throw the city's political landscape into turmoil by pitching together incumbents in redrawn districts in at least four cases.

An official who led the city effort to redraw wards said Mair is wrong about adding more minority wards but predicted the disagreement will end up in court.

"I assume that at some point we will have to address this before a judge," said Joseph Rabito, who headed the Albany Redistricting Commission. Rabito was later appointed as city clerk, then became a city planner and is now a top aide to Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings.

"We worked hard at creating a fifth minority ward," Rabito said Monday. "But it diluted minority voting strength in the other wards."

From 1990 to 2000, the city's share of blacks and Hispanics grew from 25 percent to 37 percent, according to the 2000 Census. The council kept the number of predominantly minority wards at four when it adopted a new ward map in 2002.

The federal Voting Rights Act, which Mair used to successfully sue the county, requires redrawn election boundaries give minorities a proper share of voting power to elect candidates of their choice. Another goal of legislative redistricting is to have wards equal in population, in keeping with federal one-person, one-vote rules.

"I could draw seven minority districts, if I drew salamanders and lizards like the council did," Mair said, referring to the unusual, convoluted shapes of some of the wards.

Several council members reacted warily to Mair's plan.

"I question whether this would dilute minority voting strength," said Council President Pro Tempore Richard Conti of the 6th Ward.

When only voting-age residents are considered, the percentage of minorities is below 50 percent in some of Mair's redrawn districts, Conti said.

Mair's plan also would combine the mostly white and middle-class Center Square neighborhood represented by Conti in with Arbor Hill, a predominantly black neighborhood that is one of the poorest areas in the city, and put Conti in a new district with Councilman Michael Brown, an African-American who recently lost the council's leadership post to Conti in a power struggle.

Councilwoman Carolyn McLaughlin, an African-American who represents the 2nd Ward in the South End, defended the current ward system. "I thought at the time we did our job well," said McLaughlin, who served on the Redistricting Commission.

She also said she opposed any plan that would divide distinct neighborhoods among more than one ward, and she questioned why Mair did not offer any plan to the commission, which held numerous public meetings and five public hearings before adopting a plan in August 2002.

"The real question is, 'Why didn't the city follow the law two years ago?' " Mair said. "I'm not saying this is a plan in concrete. This is fluid example of how you get six seats, and it's something I have put out there for public scrutiny."

The local chapter of the NAACP, which joined Mair in his battle with the county, is prepared to support him again, said chapter President Anne Pope. "We would hope that the city would understand and agree that the wards have to be redone, and we don't have to do the same kind of battle we did with the county," she said.

Mair might well afford another lawsuit. He is fighting the county for more than a half-million dollars to cover legal fees because he prevailed in federal court on his redistricting lawsuit.

In that case, he got support from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. "We are prepared to turn to our allies again to represent the people in this case," Mair said.