Aldermen undergo riskier remapping process

St. Charles aldermen took another step closer to making it easier for residents to figure out which city council member represents them last week. If everything turns out the way First Ward Aldermen Dan Stellato would like it to, knowing your aldermen might become as simple as figuring out your closest major street or natural geographic feature.

Stellato became part of the team of aldermen redrawing the ward boundaries in the city after publicly accusing the first map the team developed of being too confusing for residents. City officials must redraw the ward boundaries to reflect changes in the city’s population following the 2010 census. The deadline for locking in the new map won’t come until fall.

Stellato explained in an email what’s driving his concern for a clearer map. Part of it comes for the clear boundaries of the part of the first ward he represents.

“If you live, or own a business, west of Kautz, south of Main, north of Division and east of 7th Avenue, you are in the first ward and would call me for any questions you have about the city,” Stellato said. “Pretty simple. We need to see if other ward boundaries can be as easily defined.”

But to do that, aldermen must reach a tricky balance between easily defined boundaries and a map that won’t result in a lawsuit. The team drawing the map initially targeted no more than a 1 percent difference in population among the wards to avoid any potential lawsuit for having a gerrymandered map. But Stellato’s quest to use clear geographic boundaries, such as the collector streets that define his ward, may make that 1 percent target unreachable.

Early last week the map team began looking at changes that might push the population differences among the wards up to as much as 4 percent. The outside attorney helping the city redraw the wards has advised against that big of a difference. But Stellato is counting on justification of as much as a 10 percent population difference among the wards based on the standard Aurora is using for its remapping efforts, and guidelines recently published by the Illinois Municipal League.

“Wards and districts must be as equal as possible, though they do not have to be perfect,” reads the legal brief by the Illinois Municipal League. “There is no set number for an allowable (population) deviation. Historically, cases have established a ‘10 percent rule’ calling for states to justify only overall ranges over 10 percent. Local governments are generally held to the same standard.”

The key then is for St. Charles aldermen to draw wards that have boundaries for which they can pose a reasonable justification.

“If we deviate too far from 1 percent and are challenged, we will lose the challenge,” Fourth Ward Alderman Jim Martin said.

Martin is the chairman of the team redrawing the maps. He’s also been the person literally drawing the boundaries on his own computer for the team to review.

Martin, Stellato and the rest of the remapping team could not reach an agreement on the new boundaries last week. The team will meet again next month with some revision suggestions to take another shot at it.