Back to the Drawing Board: County Council Votes to Send Map Back to Commission

The voted 6-0 to send a revised district boundary map to the county’s Redistricting Commission. The proposed map suggests boundary changes in light of population shifts based on the 2010 census.

“I was of the understanding that we would start with our current districts and go from there,” said Councilman Terry Hollander, R-District 5, of St. Charles. “I thought the whole idea is to keep me representing people I’ve been representing.”

Hollander said he would like to keep the “Truman wedge,” an area bounded by Truman and Ehlmann roads, which is near his home.

Hollander said the Redistricting Commission concentrated on getting districts' populations as close as possible. The districts with the highest and lower populations are just 1 percent apart. The county charter allows them to be within 5 percent.

"I think that's to handle situations like this," Hollander said. “But they know the numbers better than I do, they’ve been working with it for quite awhile."

Five of the six commission members attended the meeting.

“It was rough to keep people with what they had and go from there,” said commission member Mark Miles, a Democrat representative.

The commission consists of three Republicans and three Democrats appointed by County Executive Steve Ehlmann.

Miles said the county grew by about 78,000 people, and most of them were in the western part of the county. District 1, which gained about 30,000 according to the census, had to lose 18,000 people and District 2 had to lose 14,000 under the revised map, he said.

Commission member Tom Kuypers, a Republican, said Hollander’s was the most difficult district because it lost population.

“They all want to represent the people they’ve been representing, but you can’t do that completely,” Kuypers said.

Councilwoman Nancy Matheny, R-District 3, of Weldon Spring, said there were a few things she didn’t like about the revised map, but she definitely liked one thing.

“I like the way that (boundaries are) major roads and highways,” Matheny said. “Sometimes, there were times I didn’t know if something was in my district without looking it up.”

Chairman Joe Brazil, R-District 2, of Defiance, said he would like the Foristell area south of Interstate 70 to remain in his district. The revised map would change it to District 1

Councilman Joe Cronin, R-District 1, suggested that an area near Salt Lick Road could be added back into his district to compensate for losing the Foristell area south of I-70.

Once the changes are finalized, they will affect the 2012 county council elections. Commission members have until Nov. 30 to propose another map. However, the commission is not required to make any changes to the map at all. But commission members said they are open to changing the map.

“If we come back and they don’t like it, some judge is going to draw those lines,” Kuypers said. “Nobody wants that.”