Redistricting Proposals (2000)
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As required by the Constitution of the United States and our Charter, each jurisdiction in the U.S. must redistrict every ten years following the Census to assure the proper representation for each resident. In early 2001, the Mayor appointed me as Chair of the sub-committee to tackle the redistricting effort. After many hours of work I was able to present the Council and concerned citizens a number of proposals for their review and comments. As a result of the increase in population over the past ten years due to the Madison Hill development and increases in population among our residents living in apartments, various considerations had to be made. Chief among the considerations was to assure that redistricting kept neighborhoods of commonality, natural boundaries and assure lack of discrimination as well as the major requirement of equality of ward populations plus or minus a 5% range of difference. With these mandated requirements, the following proposals were presented to the council:
- A 3-Ward Plan with 2 councilmembers per ward
- A 4-Ward Plan with 2 councilmembers at large
- A 5-Ward Plan with one councilmember per ward.
- A 6-Ward Plan with one councilmember per ward.
- A 7-Ward Plan with one councilmember per ward.
After a number of meetings and taking into consideration both citizen and council recommendations it would appear the final two plans to be considered are a new 6-Ward Plan or the new 3-Ward Plan with 2 councilmembers in each ward (see below).
Citizens are urged to review the proposed plans which will be displayed in the municipal building, and to make comments at the regular legislative meeting on October 7, 2002.
It is the recommendation to the council to have a special legislative meeting on October 21, 2002 at which time a plan would be accepted so that the proper charter changes can be made and presented at the regular legislative meeting on November 4, 2002. Following the adoption of the charter change the new plan would be effective prior to January 1, 2002 for the election in May 2003.
Again I urge you to have your views heard. Whatever changes are finally made will stand for the next 10 years. If you have any questions, please call me at (301) 864-3545 or e-mail me at guyrivpark@aol.com.
Guy Tiberio is the Ward 3 Councilmember and Chair of the Finance Committee.
This page was last changed on Sunday, November 17, 2002. Questions, comments, or submissions? See the Website Committee web page. This page has been accessed 4990 times.