Brookhaven was a main area of dispute as the DeKalb delegation struggled toward an agreement on a new district map for the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners.

DeKalb’s delegation of legislators had not approved final election districts for the county Board of Commissioners by Feb. 22, more than a week after the original deadline.

The 19-member House delegation had agreed upon a map presented by Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb, that would consolidate Brookhaven precincts into the district represented by County Commissioner Elaine Boyer. The Brookhaven area has been split between the districts of Boyer, who represents District 1, and Commissioner Jeff Rader, who represents District 2.

But the Senate delegation was expected to back maps that five of the seven DeKalb commissioners had signed off on, which puts the three Brookhaven precincts in Rader’s district.

Jacobs said he now supports that version of the map.

“I received some feedback from constituents that they would prefer it be the other way and feedback from the County Commission that they would prefer to go with original map proposed by the County Commission,” Jacobs said. “So I support both my constituents and commissioners wishes on that one.”

The delegation was in a rush to approve a map in time to meet a Feb. 14 deadline so that the map could be voted on in the Senate in time to send to the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure it complies with the Voting Rights Act. Every 10 years, local governments must redraw political districts based on new census data to ensure roughly the same number of people are within each district.

Jacobs said his hope is that all of Brookhaven will be represented by one county commissioner.

“The Peachtree corridor in Brookhaven needs to be whole in one County Commission district or the other, I’m indifferent as to which district it’s in,” he said.

Rader agreed that keeping all of Brookhaven in one district will be positive for the community.

“In both of the maps they keep all of the Brookhaven overlay in one district, whether it is in district 1 or 2 is the difference,” Rader said. “I do think that having all three of those precincts in one district is important.”

The two versions of the map are nearly identical and differ by only a few precincts.

“The end of the story is it all revolves around Brookhaven,” said Bob Lundsten, a spokesman for Boyer.

Lundsten said the map Jacobs proposed was quickly approved by the committee before it could be fully vetted by the DeKalb commissioners and residents.

According to Lundsten, Boyer did not ask Jacobs to put the Brookhaven precincts in her district. Lundsten said in addition to having too many constituents and needing to shed precincts, Boyer was willing to lose the Brookhaven precincts because she believes a large number of residents there are supporters of Rader.

“Commissioner Boyer never really asked for it,” Lundsten said.

Jacobs said the Senate delegation is likely to approve the version of the map that is backed by five of the commissioners and keeps Brookhaven in District 2.

“It looks as though the House delegation isn’t going to take any action on its own map and instead wait for the Senate to send school board and County Commission maps over to us,” Jacobs said.