Columbus may

not have had as many problems drawing maps as the Coweta County Commission

and the Coweta County Board of Education.

During Tuesday's

commission meeting, the commissioners heard from county attorney Mitch

Powell that state Representative Lynn Westmoreland wants to meet with

both groups to discuss the maps they've submitted to the legislators for

redistricting.

The maps are

drawn after each Census, and in the past, the county and school board

maps have been the same.

This year,

the county drew their maps for their five districts and submitted them

to the school board and the local legislators.

But when the

school board submitted their maps to the legislators, the maps were significantly

different.

Westmoreland

suggested a meeting to figure out whether the governing bodies wanted

to use the same maps or different ones.

The County

Commissioners made their feelings known Tuesday.

"I'll

be happy to meet with the legislators, but it will serve no purpose,"

said Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter.

Hunter said

for 30 years both bodies have used the same maps and he was comfortable

with the county's district lines.

"There's

no reason to meet unless we're willing to compromise," he said.

Commissioner

Robert Wood's fifth commission district is a minority district and has

to receive approval from the Justice Department. Wood said the county's

staff worked hard on creating the maps, and he did not want to do anything

the could jeopardize approval from the feds.

But Wednesday

morning, Superintendent of Education Richard Brooks put a different spin

on the story.

Brooks said

the last two times that redistricting has occurred, the county and board

sat down together and drew the maps.

"We were

not invited this year to participate in the map drawing," he said.

Brooks said

he would be more than willing to meet with the legislators to work out

differences.