Harlan Kirgan
Redistricting is likely coming to St. Landry Parish Council and School Board districts after the 2020 census is completed.
On Wednesday, the St. Landry Parish Council approved a resolution clearing Parish President Jessie Bellard to enter into a contract with Lafayette demographer Mike Hefner, of Geographic Planning & Demographic Services.
The Council met in a Zoom session. Hefner said he was at a Iberia Parish meeting where reapportionment was on the agenda.
The timeline for reapportionment is unusual this year, Hefner said.
“Normally, we should getting data within a week or so. Because of COVID, Congress allowed them, the Census Bureau, to report to the president at the end of April rather than the end of December last year because of delays in both collection and tabulation,” he said.
“That means we’ve lost about six months of planning,” he said. The start date is moving from March to August, he said.
St. Landry Parish Council and School Board districts are identical, he said.
If the census count shows a change of 5%, the lines must be redrawn, he said. Districts must be nearly equal in population, but no more than 5% difference.
“The last time we worked in conjunction with the School Board,” he said.
“They’ve expressed an interest in doing that again,” Hefner said. “I think for voters it is a god thing as well. I think it worked out good last time.”
Hefner said the arrangement will mean a discount although no price for the work was mentioned during the meeting. Hefner did say it the price would be the same as it was in 2010.
Bellard said in a phone call Thursday that the price would be negotiated and the cost is split evenly between the parish government and School Board.
Hefner reminded the Council that it approved an ordinance in 2019 to reduce the number voting precincts in the parish.
St. Landry Parish has 94 voting precincts and he will start from a base of 53 precincts in formulating districts based on new population numbers, he said in December 2019.
The parish has voting precincts ranging from 56 voters up to about 2,000 voters, he said. Hefner expected the parish will wind up with voting precinct numbers in the 70s or 80s.
The reduction will save election costs, he said.
There are indications that St. Landry Parish’s population has shifted and declined since the 2010 census count.
In presentations to the School Board, Hefner described in 2019 school enrollment as declining 11% since 2008. He also has shown the population growing in south St. Landry Parish.
An April 2020 census estimate has the St. Landry Parish population at 82,124 as of July 1, 2019, which is a 1.5% decrease from the April 1, 2010, population of 83,384.
The Eunice population estimate for July 1, 2019, was 9,814, down 5.6% from the April 1, 2010, population of 10,398.
The Opelousas population estimate for July 1, 2019, was 15,911, down 5.1% from the 16,634 estimate for April 1, 2010.