I am pretty sure that Terrell Brown and David Brauer are correct,
and that Karen Collier is mistaken, about there being elections for the City
Council in 2003. The next Council elections are not scheduled under the
City Charter until 2005, so that election is the first regularly scheduled
election to which the redistricting will apply. To call a new election in
2003 because of reapportionment would require legislation, a charter
amendment, or a court order, none of which is currently in the works as far
as I know.
As Terrell points out, the charter amendments extending the City
Council's terms to four years did not provide for fresh elections after
reapportionment. But other laws relating to representative offices with
four-year terms do contain such provisions. The state constitution (art.
IV, sec. 4) contains such a provision relating to state senators: "Senators
shall be chosen for a term of four years, except to fill a vacancy and
except there shall be an entire new election of all the senators at the
first election of representatives after each new legislative apportionment .
. . ." And a state statute (Minn. Statutes secs. 370.13) likewise provides
for county commissioners who, as Terrell also points out, are elected to
staggered terms: "At the next general election held in the county after the
redistricting, a commissioner shall be elected from each district, the
member from each odd-numbered district to hold a two-year term, and the
member from each even-numbered district to hold a four-year term, and
thereafter all commissioners, except those elected or appointed to fill
vacancies for unexpired terms, shall be elected for four-year terms."
David Brauer asks a very interesting question: "after the city
redistricts in '02, do council members serve their '01 election districts or
the new post-redistricting boundaries. (My guess is they serve the current
'01 districts until '05.). In other words, could I be voting for a 10th
ward council member this year
but be in the 11th ward next year?" I would ask the same question a little
differently: would the redistricting apply to a special election held before
the next regularly scheduled election? If the answer is yes, then some
voters may be represented by two Council members: one elected from their old
ward in the general election in 2001, and another elected from their new
ward in the special election. If the answer is no, then a special election
in early 2005 would use ward boundaries drawn almost thirteen years earlier,
based on a census taken almost fifteen years earlier, while ignoring the
less-than-three-year-old redistricting. I have never looked at that issue
before, but my quick look at the charter suggests that David's guess (that
the answer is no) is correct.
BRM
Brian Melendez
St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
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