Zack Matheny and Redistricting: Did Matheny set himself up to win like Skip Alston did?

"Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small tried to set up an appointment with Stephen Sherman,
the city staff redistricting guru who will help draw the new district lines.

Councilman Zack Matheny, who has been appointed to oversee the redistricting effort on behalf of the board,
didn't appreciate what he saw as her attempt to go around the council's decision.

"To me that goes against what the super majority of City Council voted for,"

Matheny said today.

...Bellamy-Small and Matheny both drew their own maps the last time the council redrew the lines in 2008.

Matheny's map was adopted.

Bellamy-Small was at the losing end of the vote.

The Neighborhood Congress opposed the whole process,
because the public did not get to see the map before it was adopted.

Flash forward to 2011, when Matheny is appointed to oversee the redistricting.

Matheny pledged to run an open and transparent process.

He also asked Sherman to keep the Census info between the two of them.

From an email from Matheny to Sherman, via Councilman Robbie Perkins,
who has Bellamy-Small's back in this fight:

"...I request that you do not show anyone other than you and me
how the census interacts with our redistricting...,

...I am simply asking for just the maps to be kept private until public comment has been heard**)

...This will allow you and I to fulfill our duty."

...Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan -- as neutral a third party as one can get
-- gave Matheny the benefit of the doubt.

"It’s a public record.

The census is a public record.

I don’t think it's proper to say, 'Don’t let folks see this.'

I am thinking Zack just wanted to coordinate letting the information all out at one time,"
she said."

Amanda