--- Conor Donnelly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While examining the latest redistricting map, I'm > wondering why our city ward boundaries don't match up with the state legislative > districts? Effectively nesting these boundaries would seem to give citizens > a clearer picture of their elected representation. Also, it might foster > more collaboration between council members and state reps since their > constituents wrapped together in similar packages. Would things be > improved by matching boundaries?
[TB] By law the city draws new ward lines AFTER the new legislative districts are drawn. Nothing prevents the city from attempting to follow the legislative district lines, however, remember that some of the legislative districts may well include residents of more than one municipality. As example the new Senate District 63 proposed yesterday includes both Minneapolis and Edina. Loki Anderson: > Also, if I am not mistaken, and please correct me if I > am wrong, the city charter dictates that at the time > of redistricting no current member of the council can > be put into a new ward with any other member. The > rationale would be that since we do not have any > immediate new election of council members after > redistricting, every ward would still need to have > representation. That puts a serious limitation on the > people charged with redistricting in the city. [TB] I've been told by a couple of members of the Charter Commission that 2 councilmembers could reside in the same ward after the new lines have been drawn. That is the reason that the 2000 election for State Senate was for a 2 year term (as was 1990) allowing for elections from the new districts after redistricting and the entire Hennepin County Board will be elected in 2002 (some to 4 year terms, some to 3 year terms to get the stagger back). When we got new city ward lines in 1990 the council had 2 year terms so it wasn't an issue. Someone in a new ward without a councilmember could well file suit to declare a seat open and force an election. Would it be successful? Who knows? Terrell Brown Loring Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
