The Commission Selection Process
The application deadline was April 9, 2021
Applications were accepted from March 9 through April 9, 2021. Applicants selected will be notified in May 2021.
How will commissioners be chosen?
A diverse selection committee of respected independent Chicago residents will pick 13 commissioners from the pool of applicants who applied through online submissions.
Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission
Selection Committee Meeting Notes, April 21, 2021
Call to Order: 11:00 AM
Roll Call: Christina Rivers, Selection Committee; C.W. Chan, Selection Committee; Adam Alonso, Selection Committee; Roberto Valdez, Selection Committee; Chaundra Van Dyk, CHANGE Illinois Chicago Project Manager; Christina Cano, CHANGE Illinois, Projects Coordinator.
Adjournment: 1:30 pm
The independent selection committee for the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission met to begin considering applications to serve on the commission.
More than 430 applications were submitted by the April 9th deadline from throughout the city. After filtering through initial eligibility -- whether an applicant was a Chicago resident and at least 18 years of age -- there were 374 left to be considered.
After discussing the best approach to selecting applicants who would move to the next round of consideration, the selection committee decided to start the process of scoring by using the question, Please state why you are interested in joining the commission, as the starting point. Beginning April 22nd, each member of the committee will review all applicants’ answers to this question and rate them on a 0-3 scale. As a group, the committee will revisit and discuss the ratings at their next meeting, then move forward in conversation about applicants with point of reference questions.
Questions inquiring about an applicant’s background, like length of residency in Chicago, were not determined as gradable. Instead, this question and others -- such as zip code, employment, and experience with redistricting -- will be considered as points of reference and representation when considering applicants. In regard to residency, selection committee members said they believed there are benefits to having both long-term residents and more recent transplants who are highly involved in their communities on the commission. Committee members agreed residents being considered should have lived in the city for at least five years.
Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission
Selection Committee Meeting Notes, April 28, 2021
Call to Order: 11:00 AM
Roll Call: Christina Rivers, Selection Committee; C.W. Chan, Selection Committee; Adam Alonso, Selection Committee; Roberto Valdez, Selection Committee; Chaundra Van Dyk, CHANGE Illinois Chicago Project Manager; Christina Cano, CHANGE Illinois, Projects Coordinator.
Adjournment: 12:45 pm
The independent selection committee for the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission met to go over the ratings assigned to applicants’ answers to the question, Please state why you are interested in joining the commission.
Committee members did not see applicants’ names. Each applicant was assigned a random ID number for purposes of discussion and reference. The selection committee members also began to discuss their ratings, identifying those applicants who received the highest scores, and to consider the diversity in location of those applicants via zip code and racial demographic maps.
The selection committee anticipates having a winnowed list of applicants move forward to an interview stage by the end of the committee’s next meeting on Wednesday, May 5th.
Timeline overview
The commission applications closed on April 9, 2021. We anticipate the commission will be seated and begin to be trained in May. It will be charged with hearing from the people of Chicago in a series of public hearings throughout the summer and early fall. We encourage Chicagoans to engage with the commission, testify about what kind of ward they want for their community and submit community of interest maps.
End of September: When new Census data is to be delivered and used for remapping all political districts.
December: When the Chicago City Council is expected to vote on new ward maps.
The commission’s work will be conducted in public and any community maps, testimony, meeting minutes and other business will be preserved here for public review.
Interested in learning more about communities of interest? Email info@changeil.org to sign up for a “We Draw the Lines” community mapping session featuring Representable.org.