Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. is expressing concern over representation for the city of Memphis in the three levels of redistricting plans now pending – county, state and federal.

Wharton wasn’t specific about his concerns, but he told the Memphis Kiwanis Club Wednesday, Jan. 11, that he will have an announcement soon on the issue.

“I’m not going to specify,” Wharton said after his remarks to the group. “But I am concerned and gravely so about how the current steps have diminished the voice of the city. There will be a precise action we are taking.”

Wharton’s comment came as plans for redrawing the district lines of the Tennessee state Senate were amended this week by the Republican majority to completely eliminate the district of Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle of Memphis.

The first version of the proposal had paired Kyle in the same redrawn district as Germantown Republican Brian Kelsey and it also would have eliminated the district of Memphis Democrat Reginald Tate.

That changed when it became apparent that the Kyle-Kelsey matchup would have meant a renumbering of the new district and no incumbent.

So the change means the new district will keep the number 31 and Kelsey won’t be up for election until 2014 when odd-numbered Senate seats are up for election.

Tate’s District 33 number had been moved to Middle Tennessee. Now that number has been assigned to what had previously been District 28 in the first proposal.

The bottom line is one fewer state Senate seat in the Shelby County delegation from the Memphis part of the county.

The state House proposal combines four Memphis Democrats in two districts, meaning a loss of two House seats for the city in the Shelby delegation to Nashville.

The redistricting amendments were the first order of business for the legislature as it reconvened this week. A final vote on the plan by the full Senate was scheduled for Friday, Jan. 13.

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s second look at the new district lines proposed by the Republican majorities in Nashville for the state’s delegation to Washington prompted several concerns on his part.

Cohen said he was surprised his 9th District lost Memphis territory to the 8th District currently represented by Frog Jump, Tenn., Republican Stephen Fincher.

“Memphis has never been divided,” Cohen said earlier this week noting the exception of some of Frayser that is in the 8th District and part of Parkway Village in the 7th District.

“As the Poplar Corridor has grown it has become a second major retail business area for Memphis – a second Downtown,” Cohen said. “To take that area out and put it into a rural district represented by Congressman Fincher from Frog Jump, who has rural interests at heart and rural knowledge and no experience in Memphis is a very surprising factor.”

Wharton’s concerns about the redistricting plans mirror general concerns he had at about this time in 2011 as the legislature debated changes to laws governing the consolidation of school systems. Wharton was vocal in his belief that the provisions that created the schools consolidation transition planning commission were unfair because they did not include appointees to the body to be made by the Memphis mayor.

He also said it was unfair that Shelby County Republican legislators were seeking to squelch the citywide referendum on schools consolidation in which the merger of the two public school systems was approved by Memphis voters. The legislation that emerged in Nashville and was approved was amended to take out any challenge to the referendum before it was formally presented and then approved.

Meanwhile, the Shelby County Commission is still debating a redistricting plan that could mean an extra commissioner for the county outside the city of Memphis. The commission represents all of Shelby County including the city of Memphis. So far, no faction behind any of the three dominant plans have the nine-vote, two-thirds majority necessary to pass their particular plan on third and final reading.

Three commissioners have filed a lawsuit in Chancery Court over the deadlock.

The commission is scheduled to hold a special meeting Wednesday, Jan. 18, to start the process all over again at first reading.