City staff has created nine options for new Peoria City Council districts. You can see all the proposed maps in the Redistricting Committee June 21 meeting packet from the City’s website. I’ve also put a copy of the maps on my site here:
6-21-2011 Redistricting MapsSeveral different scenarios are included: columnar districts (north to south), layered districts (east to west), drawn-out-from-center districts, and districts expanded from current boundaries (there are several of these). All of them have one thing in common: the fifth district gets smaller and the other four districts get bigger.
There’s also an interesting memo from Randy Ray at the end of the packet that details what the process would be for changing the number of districts and council members, and eliminating cumulative voting for at-large council members. The City’s current system of government (five at-large council members elected by cumulative voting plus five district council members) was established as the result of a civil rights lawsuit in the 1980s, so any change to this system would have to be approved by the federal court that decided that case. In addition, state law requires that changes to the system of government be approved by the voters via referendum. So the process would be this: A public referendum would have to be drafted and approved first by the federal court and then the voters. In order to have enough time to comply with redistricting requirements, the decision would have to be made this year (2011) on whether they wanted to try to make these changes. It will be interesting to hear the discussion on this possibility at the next meeting.
The next meeting of the redistricting committee is Tuesday, June 21, at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Most of these scenarios show the West Bluff neighborhoods being split up, where part may remain in the 2nd district, while another part is in either the 1st of 3rd districts. Unacceptable. I’d encourage the Council to think of the West Bluff neighborhoods as a package deal- we all stay in the 2nd or we all go to another district.
My Lord! The Uplands in the 1st District. Well, I guess those folks could slum it with the rest of us.
Will never happen. Bradley area associations would lose extra police patrols, special funding and consideration. Bva needs them to be reelected. I did like the map that put us into the third district. We have more in common with the east bluff regarding housing stock, crime, and landlord issues. Plus would make next election very interesting.
Plus ryan had 2 fundraisers. One in mb directly. One in camoustown. He owes them.
I agree with Conrad. The West Bluff must stay together. There is a lot of progress on the line, and splitting it is outrageous. Whomever tries to split us up should should consider it a suicide mission.
Would there be any advantage to having the West Bluff represented by two district council members instead of just one?
Apparantly some of the same people think the city should be split between 2 congressman. I don’t live on the bluff. But there are clear divisions.
I don’t know, CJ. My feeling – and much of what I’ve been hearing – is that the best scenario is having a united West Bluff served by a good district rep.
My neighborhood association is split in at least three of the maps. No concern there from the special interest groups. Course we could be equally ignored and unfunded by two council members vs. just one. Some maps but BVA’s residence out of the 2nd altogether. I am certain she couldn’t get elected in the third even with the northern tier voting block because she has just been too openly nasty to too many people in the third. So I predict the only map that stands a chance is the one which BVA stays in the second and the West Bluff retains it’s special services and funding status. the rest will be a dog and pony show.