Arlington gives initial approval to new council districts over objections of NAACP, LULAC

The Arlington City Council voted 9-0 to give initial approval Tuesday evening to a new map of voting districts that it said best met the legal requirements for drawing voting districts, even as representatives from the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens opposed the map.

The proposed redistricting will return to the council for second and final approval at the next council meeting.

Representatives of the NAACP and LULAC said the City Council did not do enough to promote diversity and equity in representation on the committee charged with drawing the voting districts.

Rezzin Pullum of the Bojorquez Law Firm in Austin, a municipal law firm hired by the city to consult on the maps, said legal reviews showed the map approved Tuesday was the best option. In response to accusations of bias against minority communities, Pullum said many decisions in the process of drawing new districts were made to preserve the voices of those communities in Arlington.

Some of the comments by LULAC President Luis Castillo were met with ire by the members of the council.

Council member Andrew Piel raised his voice at Castillo after he referred to Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph, a Black man, as a “token” person of color in city management because the other two deputy city managers are white. Piel told Castillo in an impassioned argument that the comment devalued the work Randolph did to achieve his position within the city and the qualifications he brought to his job.

Castillo said his statement was not insulting because he did not actually name Randolph, to which Mayor Jim Ross said it was clear to whom Castillo was referring.

Council member Raul Gonzalez said Castillo’s claim that he and other council members of color were “enabling white supremacy” was false and that many on the council had worked to find diverse representation for the task force to no avail. He said he and Castillo were friends and the LULAC president should know better than to accuse him of ignoring his Latino heritage.

LULAC and the NAACP developed their own map, referred to as a citizens map by the council. The map was referenced in the creation of the one the city gave initial approval to Tuesday but had too many legal problems to be approved, Pullum told the council.

Pullum said problems included removing council members from their districts, separating communities that could otherwise be kept together and actually having the unintentional effect of limiting the voices of minority voters.