In an effort to give residents more time to discuss proposedchanges to ward boundaries, Evanston City Council’s Rules Committeedecided Monday to conduct the first public meeting about theproposal on Aug. 4.
But some Associated Student Government leaders say that holdingthese public hearings during the summer will exclude a majority ofNorthwestern students from being involved in the hearingsprocess.
After presenting the proposal, the city required to hold publicmeetings before the map is voted on by the City Council.
“They are moving too quickly with redistricting by holding aseries of public meetings over the summer when students are nothere to take part,” said John Hughes, ASG’s City Council liaisonand former DAILY forum editor. Currently the Evanston Campus issplit between two wards — the First and Seventh wards. Aldermenare considering a proposal that would divide the campus into threewards.
About 2,000 students housed on campus would be moved from theFirst Ward to the Second Ward.
Hughes, who also is a board member for Students PublishingCompany, which publishes The Daily, added that ASG worriedspreading on-campus students across several wards could dilutetheir voting power.
The proposed redistricting plan uses data from the 2000 Censusto balance the population between the wards. The census showed thatthe First, Seventh and Fourth wards were overpopulated and theSecond, Fifth and Ninth wards lacked a significant number ofvoters.
Originally the committee was supposed to hold the first publichearing July 7, but some aldermen wanted to extend the date toAugust to give them enough time to discuss the proposal with theirconstitutients.
“The public has a large stake in this,” Ald. Ed Moran (6th)said. “I don’t think we should rush it.”
ASG passed a resolution May 28 asking the council to considerholding a second public hearing after Sept. 24, when studentsreturn to school. But some aldermen were hesitant to furtherpostpone the hearings after spending two years on the proposal.
“Real Evanston residents don’t leave during the summer,” Ald.Ann Rainey (8th) said at the meeting.
Federal law requires redistricting to be done at least 30 daysbefore candidates can file for the next aldermanic election. InEvanston, that would make the due date in August 2004.
However, some expect the process to still take a long time.
“There are a lot of subtleties to a redistricting effort thataren’t apparent on the face of the map,” Moran said.
