ST. LOUIS 鈥 City aldermen on Wednesday gave first-round approval to a historic redistricting plan that would trim the number of wards in half to 14 from 28.
No one opposed the new ward map in Wednesday鈥檚 voice vote, while one alderman abstained and another voted 鈥減resent.鈥
If the board gives the plan its final OK on Friday as expected, the issue then would go to Mayor Tishaura O. Jones.
Jones has yet to say whether she鈥檒l sign or veto the map. But she has expressed satisfaction with the amount of public input gotten by the aldermanic Legislation Committee as it worked out the proposal.
After Wednesday鈥檚 vote, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed commended the board for working together to craft the map.
He also said it鈥檚 鈥渆xtraordinary鈥 that aldermen voted 鈥渁lmost unanimously to adopt a map鈥 that will result in 鈥渉alf of you losing your positions鈥 in the next round of aldermanic elections in 2023.
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The reduction in wards was required by a city charter amendment approved by city voters in 2012.
Based on aldermen鈥檚 addresses on file with election authorities, there could be four three-way races in 2023 between incumbents and six races including two incumbents.
Only four aldermen were left in wards with no other incumbents 鈥 Joe Vollmer, the Legislation Committee chairman from the current 10th Ward; and Christine Ingrassia, Tina Pihl and Shane Cohn from the current 6th, 17th and 25th wards.
Alderman Annie Rice, 8th Ward, said she still preferred turning over redistricting largely to an independent commission; she co-sponsored an unsuccessful bill to do that last year.
However, she said the board鈥檚 redistricting process 鈥渉onestly, has gone far better than my worst expectations and ... a little bit worse than my best expectations.鈥
Rice is part of the board鈥檚 progressive bloc sometimes at odds with the more moderate Reed and his allies.
Vollmer said the panel did its best to meet federal voting rights law requirements with the plan, which sets up seven white-majority wards and seven Black-majority wards.
Another main goal, he said, was to 鈥渒eep neighborhoods intact,鈥 noting that only 12 of the city鈥檚 79 officially designated neighborhoods would be split between wards.
During Wednesday鈥檚 debate, Rice asked Vollmer to respond to some of the questions submitted last week by Citizens for Fair Maps, a coalition of groups that has complained that the process lacked transparency.
One question concerned how certain growing population groups, including Hispanics and Asian Americans, were considered.
In response, Vollmer said because people in both groups were spread out across the city, it was impossible to concentrate them in specific wards.
Reed said some other questions also were addressed in City Counselor Sheena Hamilton鈥檚 recent legal opinion on the plan and that follow-up queries should be referred to her.
The alderman voting 鈥減resent鈥 was Bill Stephens, 12th Ward, who said he wants to consult with Hamilton鈥檚 office before taking a position. Abstaining was Alderman Jesse Todd, 18th Ward.
Before endorsing the plan, the board approved an amendment with minor changes in the map.
After the meeting, the petition group that succeeded in getting a citywide vote April 5 on assigning redistricting instead to a new commission didn鈥檛 comment on the specifics of the board鈥檚 plan.
鈥淲e have learned a great deal, which will allow us to have a constructive and healthy community conversation before the April election,鈥 said Jami Cox, policy chair for Reform 最新杏吧原创.
鈥淏ased on how the board鈥檚 process moves forward, we will assess the next steps for Proposition R for Reform.鈥
After weeks of hearings and behind-the-scenes activity on the issue, the board鈥檚 35-minute debate on the map seemed almost anti-climactic.
In fact, the board spent almost twice as much time earlier in the teleconference meeting discussing how to conduct a coin flip to decide which numbers to assign to the proposed new wards. The numbers replace the letters A through N used to designate wards during the committee process.
The issue is important because in 2023, aldermen from even-number wards will be elected to full four-year terms and those from odd-number wards to short two-year terms. Odd-number wards will vote again in 2025, this time electing aldermen for four years.
At the start of the meeting, Vollmer announced that if the coin toss came up heads, the numbering of wards from N through A would begin with 1 and proceed to 14. If the toss came up tails, the numbering would begin with 2.
When aldermanic staffer Sharita Rogers carried out the flip at City Hall, it came up heads, she and Vollmer reported.
But because some members couldn鈥檛 tell from their Zoom video feed which side of the coin was up, the board had a lengthy discussion on whether to do it over to assure the public that the board was being transparent.
Alderman Joe Vaccaro, 23rd Ward, proposed that a best two out of three coin flips be carried out instead. That was defeated, 21-4, so heads it was.
Downtown tax district
The board also advanced a bill needed to extend the life of a downtown taxing district now set to expire at the end of the year.
The measure, given preliminary approval on a voice vote, accepts petitions submitted by the community improvement district. District officials say the petitions allow the district to continue through 2041 and its tax until 2031.
The board, however, rejected on an 11-11 vote a separate bill that would extend the district鈥檚 existence three years but without authority to continue the tax beyond this year.
The sponsor of both bills, Alderman Jack Coatar, 7th Ward, said the defeated legislation would have allowed the district to continue spending about $1 million in current funds plus $3 million it expects to collect via recent tax bills if the petition-related measure is tied up in court by an opposition group.
Dome authority appointment
The board also approved Mayor Jones鈥 appointment of Sherita Haigler, a vice president at United Way of Greater 最新杏吧原创, to the panel that owns the Dome at America鈥檚 Center.
Haigler replaces Linda Primer, who was serving on an expired term at the panel, the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.
Updated at 7:20 p.m.
