Not everyone is happy with new St. Charles ward map

St. Charles aldermen are poised to approve the new territories of voters who will decide if they get re-elected or not. But not every alderman is happy with the way the new voting lines are drawn.

A committee of aldermen, city officials and an outside consultant drew the new ward boundaries. Aldermen have the right in drawing their own maps to construct them in a way that avoids any two sitting aldermen from having to face each other in the next election. The wards must also be compact, contiguous and of reasonably equal size. Though not often discussed openly, there is also usually an element of aldermen drawing voting lines that put them in wards with constituents most likely to re-elect them.

First Ward Alderman Dan Stellato said this week the main factor he wants to see in the new boundaries is residents’ ability to easily figure out which ward they live in. That’s the first step in figuring out who your alderman is when voting or needing to reach an elected official to help with a problem, Stellato said.

“We used to follow precinct lines; then I realized no one really knew where their precinct was,” Stellato said. “I think (residents) can get behind geographical boundaries.”

Specifically, Stellato said major streets make sense as ward boundaries. The problem with that is using geographical boundaries might throw off the almost identical sizes of the wards as drawn in the pending new map. City officials would like to keep each ward similar in size in terms of population — within 65 people — to avoid any costly legal challenge to the map. That’s basically a 1 percent margin of difference.

But Stellato said the Illinois Municipal League has recommended a margin of no more than 10 percent population difference in wards. That’s a guideline Aurora is using in its remap. Stellato said the larger variance would allow for geographic boundaries to be more of a factor.

His fellow aldermen did not agree. Ward 3 Alderman Bill Turner said using geographical boundaries would probably cause him to end up with constituents he’s not familiar with and may not relate to.

Ward 4 Alderman Jim Martin claimed responsibility as the primary author of the new map, and said changing the boundaries now to match geographies will result in a long debate without many substantive changes to how the map already looks.

Stellato and Ward 4 Alderman Jo Krieger were the lone “no” votes on the new map. The city council must take a final vote on the map Feb. 21 before locking it in.