Members of the county Legislature’s Reapportionment Commission have submitted two maps, one that keeps the legislature at 19 districts and one that reduces it to 17. P-J file photo

MAYVILLE — The Chautauqua County Legislature’s Reapportionment Commission has officially submitted two maps — one with 17 districts and one with 19 districts.

On Friday, the eight-member commission — made up of four Republicans and four Democrats — voted unanimously to forward both maps to the full legislature, instead of one single map.

When the county Legislature put the commission together, it was ordered to have a map submitted by May 1. The commission had been meeting regularly over the past few months. The Republicans sought to keep 19 members while Democrats have been pushing to reduce the legislature’s size by two members, due in part to population loss over the last 10 years.

Larry Wilcox, a Republican, criticized the Democrats’ plan saying it divides up too many towns. In the Democrats’ plan, Sheridan is in three districts, Gerry is in three districts, Clymer is in two districts and Pomfret is in four different districts. Other towns divided up include Ellington, Charlotte, Stockton and Arkwright.

Greg Rabb, a Democrat, defended their map. “Going from 19 to 17 is a real challenge,” he said.

By comparison, Wilcox noted that their districts keeps more towns together. Hanover will be in one district, Pomfret will be in two districts, Busti will be in two districts and Chautauqua will be in three districts. He added that Chautauqua keeps the lake residents mostly united. Most other towns aren’t divided up.

Another point Wilcox highlighted in the Republican plan is that in their proposed map, for the first time ever in Chautauqua County, will be a “minority-majority district.” District 2 in Dunkirk will have 40% Hispanic, 9% Black, 1% Asian and 3% Native American residents.

“That’s never happened before in the history of the county,” he said.

Now that the commission is done with their work, the two maps will be forwarded to the full legislature for review.

County attorney Stephen Abdella said the legislature may review the maps starting in May or they may wait until later. He said the full legislature must adopt a finalized map by the end of the year, although it may adopt a map sooner.