LANDOVER Trevor Otts doesn’t want a repeat of the last time political boundaries were redrawn in Maryland.

The 2002 legislative redistricting plan submitted by the General Assembly faced multiple lawsuits and was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s highest court, which redrew the lines.

As the state and other governmental entities prepare to begin the once-a-decade process, Otts, who owns a business consulting firm and lives in Fort Washington, is chairing a political action committee that aims to ensure proposed districts reflect Prince George’s County’s majority minority population.

“Primarily, we want to make sure the needs of the community are not being superseded by the needs of a politician to get re-elected,” he said Wednesday after a sparsely attended meeting of the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee.

The PAC, which is named after the voting rights activist and civil rights leader in Mississippi, is focused solely on ensuring fairness with the lines that are to be drawn in Prince George’s County.

It plans to propose detailed maps for the congressional reapportionment next month and will do the same for legislative districts at a later date. The PAC already has drafted some broad guidelines, such as suggesting three predominantly minority congressional districts (4, 7 and 8) and packing many of the rural jurisdictions into the 1st Congressional District.

“It makes no sense for us to go in and argue about something we don’t like if we can’t present something we do like,” said Carletta Fellows, an Upper Marlboro resident who is serving as the PAC’s consultant.

The group, which is working with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, also has developed a general outline for legislative redistricting. It has conceived seven legislative districts that would all be within Prince George’s borders. Currently, two of the county’s eight legislative districts spill into neighboring jurisdictions. As a result, the voices of voters in those districts District 21, which crosses into Anne Arundel County, and 27, which includes the northern half of Calvert County who live in Prince George’s are diluted, Otts said.

“It’s a simple concept. What we’re really saying is, ‘Prince George’s first,’” he said. “What it really boils down to is the lines have to make sense.”

“The goal of legislative redistricting should be to cross as few political jurisdictions as possible,” added Fellows. “Montgomery County should be whole, Prince George’s County should be whole, and the city of Baltimore should be whole.”

Even districts within geographical boundaries sometimes are extremely diverse, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, she said. To wit, Fellows pointed to the current 24th legislative district that includes both low-income Seat Pleasant and middle-class Mitchellville, meaning constituents’ needs are sometimes diametrically opposed.

The lack of visible activity on redistricting concerns Otts, who worries that a late start to the process will prevent citizens from having enough time to understand the proposal and respond. Gov. Martin O’Malley has not yet appointed a redistricting advisory commission, which is not required for congressional reapportionment, but is mandated for legislative redistricting.

The General Assembly will convene a special session sometime in the fall to consider the congressional reapportionment plan. Maryland will retain its eight seats in Congress. It will weigh legislative redistricting during the first half of the 2012 legislative session.

abrody@gazette.net