BALTIMORE COUNTY — The process of adding two new council members and redrawing Baltimore County's map has sparked disagreement among current council members.
WATCH: Baltimore County council members divided over redistricting map
The commission recently voted 4-3 on a proposed map, with a report expected to reach the council by early next week.
Councilman Julian Jones of District 4 says the process is far from over.
"I haven't seen it. I've heard what people tell me about it but I would like to look at it and crunch it as best I can and let people in my community take a look at it and then I'll see whether or not I'll vote for it or not," Jones said.
Izzy Patoka from Council District 2 introduced the legislation to expand the council from seven to nine members.
"It's been an incredibly heavy lift to get this process underway," Patoka said.
He supports the commission's work but anticipates changes will be needed.
"It's not whether I can vote for it or not, it's whether we can get five members of the county council to vote for it. So that's what we're gonna strive for. Likely it'll need some tweaks to get five members to support it," Patoka said.
Republican David Marks expressed frustration with the process.
"Obviously I'm very disappointed in the commission's work. There were many communities that argued that they should be kept intact. I'm not very happy with the product the commission came up with," Marks said.
Marks hopes the council will make more changes.
"I think it's incumbent upon the county council to do what this commission did not do, try to create bipartisan consensus," Marks said.
Mike Ertel of District 6 thanked the commission for their work but acknowledged more adjustments are needed.
"One of the issues that I see with it is that the Essex Middle River community really wanted their own council district and they're being split in half by this this particular map, so we're not sure if there's a way to maybe tweak it to make that more palatable where more of Essex Middle Rivers in one district," Ertel said.
Sharonda Huffman, a council member hopeful who assisted with the commission, says the map won't affect her decision to run for office.
"My whole thing is, I was running for office regardless of where you put me, and I tried to listen to the community. So I was I literally live in an area that could be in three different districts," Huffman said.
The council will meet again in July to review the recommendation. Ultimately, the seven current members will decide what the new districts will look like.
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