The redistricting debate surrounding the Champaign County Board has reached a critical stage.

A handful of Illinois House members visited Parkland College last weekend, ostensibly soliciting public opinion about the federal and state legislative redistricting process that's under way.

Of course, anyone who knows anything about politics in Illinois understands the hearing was a carefully planned farce. It was intended to convey a false appearance, namely that state legislators are interested in drawing politically balanced, compact and contiguous legislative maps.

The real intention is to do the opposite. The Democrats, the majority party in the General Assembly, intend to draw the maps to ensure they will have a majority in both the House and Senate for the next 10 years, just like they have in the last 10 years. The fact that they are Democrats, in this instance, is irrelevant. Gerrymandering by either party should be unacceptable.

People can complain all they want about the planned gerrymandering, and state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, the Urbana Democrat, and state Sen. Mike Frerichs, the Champaign Democrat, may even affect a sympathetic pose. But House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton see this issue as too important to their party to care what anyone thinks, especially good government types who think voters should have a real choice on election day.

Champaign County is trying to take a different route to a new map for members of the county board. The board appointed a special 11-member commission to draw a nonpartisan map, and the commission has come up with a recommendation the board will consider at its May 3 meeting.

But it's hard to eliminate partisan politics from the political process, and tempers are flaring along political lines. All three commission Democrats joined by independent commission member Augustus Hallman dissented from the commission's recommendation in a 7-4 vote in favor of Map 1E.

So it's unclear what will happen when the Democratic majority on the county board takes up the map issue. Will it vote to accept 1E? Will it reject the recommendation and order the commission to try again? Is there some other avenue the board's pols might consider?

Everyone should concede up front that it's difficult to draw an 11-district map (two members per district). The new board will have 22 members, five fewer than now, but two more districts. Some board members do not intend to run for re-election in 2012, but it's a certainty that others will be included in the same districts and have to run against each other.

Their political self-interest (is there any other interest in politics?) might induce them to pursue a map that is more politically favorable. That would be a mistake. The county needs a new board map that serves the public interest, not the politicians' interests.

A majority of the commission may favor Map 1E because they think it's the best of the 22 options. People, of course, can disagree about that, and board members may wish to pursue a better choice.

But they would be best served by listening to the commission they created to take this issue out of the political arena. Champaign County doesn't need more board elections where no Democrat can possibly win in Districts 1-4 and no Republican can win in Districts 5-9, like it's been for the last 10 years. The public needs competitive elections to keep members of both parties on their toes.

Whether that means Map 1E or some other choice is irrelevant. What matters is that board members do the right thing for the right reasons. What's more, the public should demand it.