The boundaries of the five City Council districts will have to change due to population shifts within the City. It’s a process called redistricting, and Mayor Ardis wants to employ a more “inclusive” method than the one used in 2001. The request from the mayor is on next Tuesday’s council agenda:
I am requesting the Council to concur with my recommendation to appoint a Redistricting Committee comprised of the District Council Members, chaired by Council Member Bill Spears. The Committee will be charged with a public process of drafting changes to the Council Districts and making a recommendation to the City Council regarding those changes.
Note that Redistricting Committees, comprised of District Council Members, were used in 1981 and 1991. I think the public process will be more inclusive than our internal process used in 2001.
The district council members are Clyde Gulley (Dist. 1), Barbara Van Auken (Dist. 2), Tim Riggenbach (Dist. 3), Bill Spears (Dist. 4), and Dan Irving (Dist. 5).
The 2010 Census shows the City’s population grew to 115,007 overall, but that growth was not evenly distributed throughout the City. Thus, the boundaries have to be redrawn such that each district includes approximately 23,001 residents (one-fifth of the total population). Here’s a chart that was provided in the council communication showing how many residents are currently in each council district, and how many need to be added or removed to reach the target number:
| Council District |
2010 District Population |
Target | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20379 | 23001 | 2622 |
| 2 | 20615 | 23001 | 2386 |
| 3 | 21305 | 23001 | 1696 |
| 4 | 21381 | 23001 | 1620 |
| 5 | 30624 | 23001 | -7623 |
The new boundaries also have to meet federal standards for minority representation, and meet the requirements of the State of Illinois’ municipal code, which says that each district shall be “nearly equal in population,” “of as compact and contiguous territory as practicable,” and be created so that “no precinct shall be divided between 2 or more [districts].”
State law also requires that the redistricting process be completed “not less than 30 days before the first day set by the general election law for the filing of candidate petitions for the next succeeding election for city officers.” That means it would have be complete by October of 2012, but it usually gets done sooner so the Election Commission has time to redraw the precinct boundaries.