JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville City Council and the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office are scrambling two days after a federal judge ruled in favor of a new redistricting map.
For the second time this year, Judge Marcia Morales Howard ruled against the Jacksonville City Council's redistricting maps.
In her order, Judge Howard said "it was the City Council’s decision to prioritize incumbency over traditional redistricting criteria that resulted in the perpetuation of the unconstitutional effects of Jacksonville’s history of racial gerrymandering."
She instead ruled in favor of the map created by local civil rights groups, who were plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged the city's district map.
"...by focusing on race and packing more Black voters than necessary into Districts 7, 8, 9, and 10 the [Enjoined] Plan does more than just assure minority representation on the City Council in those Districts. It also confines the voice of Balck voters to those four districts on the north and west sides of the city. Because the Black voters are pulled out of Districts 2, 12, and 14, the Enacted Plan assures that in those Districts there will not be a sufficient number of Black voters for them to have a meaningful impact on any election or a meaningful voice on any issue of concern," Judge Howard said in her 60-page order.
The ruling comes weeks before qualification deadlines for Duval County's March election.
City Council Member Ju'Coby Pittman disagrees with Judge Howard's ruling and said the council did everything it could to address the unconstitutional map.
The reality for Pittman is that she will now have a few weeks to prepare to qualify for the March election.
The District 8 council member will now be running for the seat in District 10 against current District 10 council member Brenda Priestly Jackson.
District 10 in the new map contains several neighborhoods in the old district 10 and 8, areas Priestly Jackson and Pittman currently represent.
"The constituents voted me in, and I'm sure that the job that I'm doing if they feel that I'm worthy that I can continue to work for them and that's what I'm looking for to. My efforts are focused on bringing people together to help bring businesses together." Pittman said.
Pittman went on to call it an "unfortunate situation." But, Andrew Pantazi, a journalist at the Jacksonville Tributary says it's a product of the new maps doing what they were intended to do.
"We'll see in the coming days weeks months how it changes their behavior on city council, but I think it means they're going to try now to find issues that they can distinguish themselves on and that's good that's what we want competitive elections that result in elected officials that want to win the vote of the public and win the vote by doing a good job of responding." Pantazi said.
First Coast News reached out to council member Priestly Jackson but has not heard back.
City Council is having a private shade meeting Thursday to discuss redistricting. The council is not at liberty to publicly discuss the meeting.
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan said his office has already begun implementing the new redistricting map.