Only a few people spoke at Tuesday’s City Council redistricting committee meeting, but those who did had one thing in common. They did not want to see their neighborhoods divided between two or more council districts. City staff was instructed to discard the maps that carved up the West Bluff and/or the Florence Avenue Neighborhood Association and come back with more alternatives that keep neighborhoods within a single council district.
There was also a request for staff to quantify what kind of population growth the City expects over the next ten years — taking into account plans for the Warehouse District, East Village Growth Cell, Main Street Commons, and growth cells in the current fifth district — and use that information to assist in drawing new district boundaries. Here’s how this information helps: when drawing new boundaries, the city is required to make each district equal in population. But they don’t have to be exactly equal — they’re allowed a range of deviation of up to five percent. So, if you expect one district to grow faster than the others, you can make that district a little smaller in population, as long as it’s within the five percent range. This helps keep districts from getting too lopsided over the next ten years.
The committee also recommended that the full City Council discuss whether to increase the number of council districts in the city and/or do away with cumulative voting for at-large council members. The committee felt that discussion was outside of their purview and should be taken up by the entire council.
The next redistricting committee meeting will be Tuesday, July 5, at 4:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. The meeting time was moved an hour earlier so that third district councilman Riggenbach (who was unable to attend last night’s meeting due to an unexpected work assignment) can attend both the redistricting committee meeting and an East Village Growth Cell meeting at Glen Oak School that same night at 6 p.m.
UPDATE: I’ve uploaded a complete audio recording of the meeting, for those who are interested:
[audio:http://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/Redistricting-06212011.mp3]
Peoria needs to keep the current council districts as they are, with the exception of carving another district or two out of the ever-growing 5th District. While at the same time, get rid of, or at least cut back the number of those goofy At-Large council seats.
We need the at larges. Switching to more district council members lends to the current issues of the favored few getting all the resources. Not all neighborhoods can host cocktail parties to grab the attention of their representatives.
Most of Peoria except for parts of the 5th district have become quite ghetto so I don’t care. Woodford county here i come.
Not sure if everyone’s thinking clearly on this. Some are unhappy with having citywide seats elected by a cumulative voting system that ensures almost everyone can help elect at least one person they like, but others do not “want to see their neighborhoods divided between two or more council districts.” Kind of hard to have it both ways. Why not ensure Peoria voters can help defining themselves with their votes with cumulative voting rather than redistricting line-drawers doing the job?
Why do all the school board candidates weigh 400 pounds ?
Is that a new requirement ?