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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Not many of the 100 or so people who showed up at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel Tuesday for a public hearing on how legislators should redraw Alabama’s congressional and state Board of Education districts made specific requests on map drawing.

Instead, several told an attorney for the Legislature’s reapportionment committee, Dorman Walker, and the two co-chairmen of the 22-member committee that the hearing should have been postponed because of the April 27 tornadoes.

“We understand we have to have meetings about redistricting. But in the wake of the tornadoes and the devastation that we’ve had .¤.¤. why are we here today?” Richard Franklin of Birmingham said in an interview shortly after he spoke at the hearing. “People don’t even have homes to go to. They don’t even know this meeting has occurred. But we’re saying this is being fair? This is a slap in our face.”

Others at the hearing questioned whether the reapportionment committee, with its 16 Republican and six Democratic members, could fairly redraw congressional and school board districts in time for next year’s elections to reflect population changes shown by the 2010 census.

“I am concerned that the committee doesn’t represent the people of the state of Alabama. The concern I have is that these lines not be gerrymandered to accommodate somebody’s parochial interest,” said Herb Kuntz of Cropwell.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, a committee co-chairman, said Republicans deserve to hold most of the committee’s seats because they hold a majority of the seats in the Legislature. “I think we will be fair,” Dial added.

He and the other committee co-chairman, Rep. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, said they didn’t want to delay hearings because they want the Legislature to approve new district lines before the regular session ends in June.

Dial and McClendon said that, if lawmakers can’t pass new district lines by then, Gov. Robert Bentley would have to call a special legislative session, which they said could cost $500,000.

Dial said anyone prevented from attending hearings because of storm damage could contact his or her legislator to comment on redistricting.

The committee plans on May 19 to recommend congressional and state school board redistricting plans for the Legislature to debate starting May 24.

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