ODESSA, Texas — Ector County commissioners approved the proposed redistricting plan on Tuesday morning with a final four to one vote.
There will still be four precincts, but some of those district lines have moved quite a bit.
The commissioners court has been working with the same law firm that helped Midland County redraw their lines. The goal is to have an even population across the four districts.
NewsWest 9 spoke with David Mendez, a member of the Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta Law Firm, the law firm in charge of redistricting.
"Illustrative Plan One, that was adopted by Ector County today, rebalances the population of the four county commissioner precincts within the limits provided by law," said Mendez. "All the precincts are within the 10% of legal limits."
There were two plans on the table and commissioners ultimately passed option number one.
Armando Rodriguez, commissioner for precinct four, told NewsWest 9 he supported the second plan due to the area it was in.
"Precinct three will stay within the city, and it does not have too much responsibility out in the county," said Rodriguez. "The second plan did have more responsibility out in the county as it went up to I-20, so it had the impact on the service roads and the condition of the roads and everything like that."
Commissioner Rodriguez said he disapproved of the plan since he believes the work isn't spread evenly with the districts.
"For precinct three, if they have a problem inside the city, they just call the people from the city and they can work that out," said Rodriguez. "Out in the county, that is a different story because they would talk directly to the commissioners."
According to Mendez, the approval of plan one will come with some changes for the county residents.
"This plan primarily moved territory from precinct one in Odessa to the commissioner from precinct number three," said Mendez. "Also, a small area in the west side of Odessa is going to precinct number four."
It is important to note that the new districts will not go into effect immediately. The new district lines will go into effect January 2023.