The effort to redraw wards in Jamestown so they will comply with the 2020 census is moving forward.
On Tuesday, the city’s Reapportionment Commission held its second meeting of the year and further looked into the process of drawing ward boundaries. The commission also voted to move forward on drawing two maps – one that would maintain the current number of six wards, and another which would remove a ward and reduce the number down to five.
The idea of removing the ward seat was put forward by commission member and chair of the city’s Democratic party Jim Walton. He said the city’s shrinking population justifies eliminating a ward, adding that he also would support removing all three at large seats as well, “I’d like to get rid of all the at-large numbers. I’d like to go to five council people. The trend even with the county is to end up with less people, less legislators cause there’s less people.”
Walton added that each council member is $5,000 a year in salary, so by eliminating four seats, it would help to save money, “If you take out four that’s $20,000. If you wind up taking out two that’s $10,000. That’s the advantage. Everyone is looking for smaller government. I think we ought to be out there championing that cause instead of trying to figure out a way we can stay in the status quo as the population continues to decline.”
Not everyone on the commission was in favor of reducing the number of wards. Commission member Tony Dolce, who is also the current City Council President, voiced concern about an increased workload with fewer council members, “The problem with that is that it changes the whole structure of committees and work load and stuff like that because as it is you have four committees. Some people are on multiple committees. It’s a lot of extra work.”
In addition to his proposal, Walton put forward a draft map that contained only five wards. It will be developed into a more detailed, interactive map. Meanwhile, an updated six-ward map will also be created by tweaking the existing ward lines so that they all come within one percent of containing 4,785 residents – the number needed to have an equal number of residents in all six wards under the 2020 census count.
Commission chair Pete Johnson said city staff will develop two proposals in the coming weeks and the commission will meet again to review, “We’re going to see whether the current six wards can be tweaked to try to get a balance across those six, hopefully within 50 individuals, plus or minus. Then also to consider the possibility of moving from six down to five wards and what that might look like.”
The commission will meet again on May 24 to continue the discussion. Under the city charter, it is required to finalize and approve a plan by September 1.
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