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Suburbs / Daily Southtown / Southtown News
Blue Island launches ward remap
process
By Phil Kadner
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City under pressure for lack of adequate black representation
DECEMBER 4, 2015, 5:16 PM
B
lue Island has been forced to begin the process of drawing new ward boundaries for its
aldermen after being cited as a top offender in a study of government entities in Illinois
that have underrepresented minority populations in elected office.
The study, "The Color of Representation: Local Government in Illinois" by the Chicago Lawyers
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, examined hundreds of county boards, townships,
village councils and school boards, and cited Blue Island as one of the places where people of
color were most underrepresented. According to the study, 38 percent of the voting-age citizens
in Blue Island are black and 31 percent Latino, but only four out of 14 aldermen are minorities
(two black and two Hispanic). The study estimated that 40 percent of the population lacks
representation, although Mayor Domingo Vargas is Hispanic.
After the study's release in the spring, representatives of the Chicago Lawyers Committee
contacted the Chicago Far South Suburban Branch of the NAACP seeking out people with
whom to work in Blue Island to change the city's elected representation and two of those
individuals, Willie Scott and Mark Kuehner, were active in CASA (Citizens In Action Serving
All) Blue Island, an organization formed following the death several years ago of Antonio
Manrique, 74, after being beaten by Blue Island police officers.
At the first of what are to be four public hearings into the remap of Blue Island aldermanic
wards on Thursday, it was revealed that the city had not altered its ward boundaries since 1996.
Under U.S. Supreme Court rulings and the federal Voting Rights Act, elected bodies are
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supposed to use census data, collected every 10 years, to determine if population shifts resulted
in a need to reconfigure districts to properly represent minorities, or keep pace with overall
shifts in population. Blue Island did not alter its ward boundaries for nearly 20 years, although
between 2000 and 2010 its black population increased from 5,679 to 7,304, while its white
population decreased from 12,587 to 9,780. Its Hispanic or Latino population also increased
over that decade from 8,899 to 11,133.
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In 1990, Blue Island's population was 75 percent white and only 14 percent African-American,
according to U.S. Census data.
Blue Island's overall population increased slightly, from 23,480 in 2000 to 23,706 in 2010.
Under pressure from CASA and the Chicago Lawyers Committee, city officials agreed it was
time to review its ward boundaries, hiring one of the top political mapmakers in Illinois,
attorney Michael Kasper, to guide it through the process. Kasper has been called House
Speaker Michael Madigan's attorney and has been a key figure behind controversial state
legislative redistricting maps that have given Democrats a stranglehold on the Senate and
House in Illinois.
In opening comments at Thursday's public hearing, Kasper explained that due to its increase in
population alone from 1990 to 2010, Blue Island needs to redraw its boundaries to come into
compliance with federal laws noting that, in theory, each of the city's seven wards should have a
target population of 3,387. He said several existing wards are far from the maximum 33 percent
deviation from that base number typically allowed under the law. The 1st ward, he noted, is 667
under the target and the 5th Ward is 437 over. The standard acceptable deviation, Kasper said,
is considered 10 percent according to Supreme Court rulings.
Kasper said no one seemed to know why Blue Island had failed to draw new ward maps for 20
years, but that it should have been done so earlier.
Members of CASA told me they believe that current officeholders didn't want to change the
map in order to retain their power base. No one mentioned the name of state Rep. Robert Rita,
D-Blue Island, who also serves as Calumet Township supervisor and the Democratic
committeeman, although it was implied he was somehow behind the lack of movement to
redraw the ward boundaries. I would note that for many of the years when nothing changed the
mayor was Republican Don Peloquin, an outspoken adversary of Rita's.
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In any event, a ward redistricting committee, consisting of five aldermen, has been created. It is
chaired by Ald. Fred Bilotto (2nd), considered Rita's right-hand man. Also on the committee
are Ald. Kevin Donahue (3rd), Alecia Slattery (4th), Jairo Frausto (6th) and Nancy Thompson
(7th), who is black.
The committee will not propose its own map until after a second public hearing on Dec. 10. But
CASA Blue island proposed its own remap, which would create five wards dominated by
minority voting populations, three black and two Hispanic. In theory, that would result in an
increase in the number of minority aldermen from four to 10 because each ward elects two
aldermen in Blue Island.
But Kuehner, who worked on the map with attorneys from the Chicago Lawyers Committee,
told me the goal of the ward remap goes far beyond electing new minority representatives.
He said his organization believes minority neighborhoods in Blue Island get second-class
treatment when it comes to road repairs and street lighting. In addition, minorities are
underrepresented on the city's payroll, and there are complaints that the city's Police
Department is insensitive and sometimes discriminatory in its treatment of minorities.
He said there is also a lack of recreational facilities on the south end of Blue Island, in an area
that is predominantly African-American.
Increasing minority representation on the City Council, Kuehner told me, is merely an initial
step to getting officials to pay more attention to the complaints of minority residents that they
are unfairly treated.
"Whether or not new aldermen are minority is not as significant ultimately as the fact they will
be forced to represent their residents and reflect their concerns," he said.
Of course, that's assuming the new ward boundaries are drawn to the liking of CASA Blue
Island and its supporters. That's unlikely to happen without an outpouring of public advocacy,
so the organization is encouraging residents to visit its website, CSABLUEISLAND.ORG, where
graphics of the current ward map are available along with an interactive version of the
proposed CASA-backed ward map. The organization is also urging people to draw their own
ward maps and submit them to the City Council for consideration, and offers guidelines on how
to do that on the site.
Kasper assured residents who attended Thursday's hearing that the entire process will be open,
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that the city will make all documents available to the public and Bilotto assured the crowd in
the Blue Island City Council chamber that after the aldermen propose their own map the week
of Dec. 13 there will be two more public hearings and time allowed for public comment.
While there have been all sorts of legal cases mandating equal representation for minorities
and guaranteeing the right to vote, I think it's fair to say there are many people today in Illinois
and across the country who believe their government does not represent them and they are cut
out of the process by professional politicians or special interests.
I would go so far as to say that even a fair map does not guarantee you will be represented in
government.
But there are unique opportunities that come along that sometime allow the average person to
have an impact on the process. I'm going to be an optimist here and say this may be one of
those for the people of Blue Island.
As for the importance of minority representation, I have seen far too many minority officials
represent only their interests, not those their communities. But then, why should they be held
to a higher standard than white elected leaders who do the same?
People too often focus on the failure of government as evidence that democracy does not work.
The fact is that governments, even the worst of them, do many good things that we too often
take for granted, like plow the streets, pick up garbage and make sure our drinking water is
safe, to name just a few.
By the way, the word "gerrymander," which is often applied to the process of remapping
election districts, is a combination of the word "salamander" (for the odd snake-like shape of
some districts) and the last name of Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, an original signer of
the Declaration of Independence, who later used his political influence to create a state
legislative map composed of odd-shaped districts to help Republicans.
We talk lovingly about our Founding Fathers. But there's not much that gets done today (both
good and bad) that they didn't come up with long ago.
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