"Behind-the-scenes redistricting work: Adam Foltz, who was part of a secretive process that crafted Wisconsin’s legislative maps, is on the payroll of the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency that manages the internal mapping tool used in redistricting.
"Records show the agency hired him as a 'legislative professional' at a $120,000 annual salary, but Kimberly Shields, the council’s executive director, said Foltz reports to the House Redistricting Committee.
"Shields and other legislative staffers did not respond to questions about Foltz’s involvement in redistricting.
"Foltz’s involvement in Wisconsin’s 2011 redistricting was shrouded in controversy. As an aide to the Speaker of the Assembly, he held meetings there under what a federal court called a 'cloak of secrecy' with every Republican member of the State Assembly — but no Democrats —
"who were each required to sign confidentiality agreements that bound them from discussing what was said. A federal court eventually found the state maps violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the vote of Latinos."
" 'Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt — albeit poorly disguised — to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin's Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege,' ...
"the court said in a 2012 ruling. 'What could have — indeed should have — been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny.' "
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