Salt Lake County Council Democrats are moving in a direction that their elected contemporaries on the hill believe that they’re allergic to: namely, removing the personal interest from redistricting and proposing an independent commission to retool the county council districts when needed.

Needless to say, council Republicans don’t like it at all.

From Stettler at the Tribune:

After delaying their decision for several weeks to woo GOP support, the new Democratic majority is expected to approve plans today for an eight-member panel that, after the 2010 Census, would rejigger voting districts for school board members and County Council seats.

The idea, according to Democrats, is to make redistricting nonpartisan.

But Republicans — who rejected the proposal while serving as the majority party last year — remain wary. They want to ensure that the council retains final authority over redistricting and that the commission itself doesn’t become a partisan animal.

What that is, is: Republican speak for “OMG! If you don’t draw the lines in a fully partisan manner, my chances at reelection get longer! It would be fair! Republicans don’t do fair!”

Think I’m being heavy handed? Maybe a little unfair myself? Well, James Evans weighed in and brought his cloud of distrust with him.

County GOP Chairman James Evans fears the commission would carry only the guise of independence.

“What the Democrats are proposing is a well-crafted smoke screen,” he said. “It is the Democrats that will be picking the members. [The resulting commissioners] will be Democrats by name or by their political beliefs.”

James may not know that that what he’s doing is projecting. He, and the Republican members of the county council, seem to be looking at the situation, projecting the hypothetical actions that they’d perform in the same situation, and freaking out because they can’t wrap their heads around what something like this really means.

Honest, more transparent government.

Republicans hate that.