The Baltimore County Council has unanimously confirmed members of a redistricting panel that will advise the council on its expansion from seven to nine members. Elections for the new council seats will be held in 2026.

Voters in November overwhelmingly approved a measure to amend the county charter and expand the council, which is all male and all white except for one Black member. The county population, meanwhile, has grown far larger and more diverse than it was when the council was created in 1956. The population of nearly 850,000 is about 30 percent Black, 9 percent Latino, 7 percent Asian, and more than half female.

The council’s decision to place council expansion on last fall’s ballot included newly drawn political maps. The two Democrats pushing the bill said they needed to do so to win the support of the council’s three Republicans. Amid some concerns about transparency, the council later passed an amendment to establish a redistricting committee to tweak the maps and gather public input, which the councilmen said they had little time to do to meet the ballot deadline.

Here are the confirmed nominees and the councilmen who picked them are:

• Lisa Belcastro, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates and a disability rights advocate (Councilman Izzy Patoka);

• Eric Rockel, a longtime community association leader in Lutherville (Councilman Wade Kach);

• John E. Dulina, a volunteer firefighter and emergency management leader (Councilman David Marks);

• Al Harris, a former educator and Vietnam War veteran (Councilman Mike Ertel);

• Ed Kramer, Middle River community activist (Councilman Todd Crandell);

• Ratonda Tate-Duffy, Woodlawn Human Resources professional and community activist (Councilman Pat Young)

Three of the nominees — Kramer, Rockel, and Harris — served as their members’ nominees to the Structure Workgroup, which the council established in October 2023 to decide whether to expand the council by two members, four members, or not at all.

Tate-Duffy and Harris are Black. The other four nominees are white.

Last week, Councilman Julian Jones nominated Linda Dorsey-Walker, a longtime Democratic Central Committee member and council expansion advocate, to serve on the panel. But Tuesday night, Jones let his fellow councilmen know that his nominee had withdrawn, citing obligations to the Central Committee. The rules state that a person serving on the redistricting committee cannot hold public office.

Dorsey-Walker has consistently advocated to expand the council by four members and led a group, Vote4More, that attempted to add an option to the ballot to do so. Her group was not able to collect the 10,000 signatures needed.

Last week, Dorsey-Walker seemed to acknowledge her statements irritated council members.

“The thing that has really been my life’s work is trying to bring about equity and fairness in this county so that it reflects who lives here now. And I can be fair. I can be open minded,” the Owings Mills resident said. “I wish I were looking at more receptive faces.”

Jones plans to nominate Cordell Grant, the assistant director of judicial clerkships and diversity initiatives at the University of Baltimore and a longtime criminal justice attorney. He will offer Grant’s nomination at next week’s work session.

Many residents are still concerned about the maps that passed last year, and the American Civil Liberties Union has already said it is considering a lawsuit over them. On Tuesday, Sharonda Huffman, a candidate for County Council in a new district that includes Essex, urged the councilmen to throw out the maps. She advocated for a third majority-minority district to represent the one-third of the county who identify as Black.

“There is still an opportunity for someone to say, ‘Let’s retract that, and let’s all start from scratch,’” she said. “Because what may happen is, the people on the committee are appointed by their council person, and they may feel obligated to make sure their councilperson has a decent district that they may be able to win in.”