Title
CONSIDERATION OF THE MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS TO THE REAPPORTIONMENT AD HOC COMMITTEE:
LARLA TURNER, WARD 1
ALEISHA KARJALA, WARD 2
PEO KIRBY, WARD 3
KAY HOLLADAY, WARD 4
KAREN GOODCHILD, WARD 5
MICHAEL ZORBA, WARD 6
RICH LUBBERS, WARD 7
JOSH HINKLE, WARD 8
CHRISTOPHER TALLBEAR, AT-LARGE
JOHN JOHNSON, EX-OFFICIO MEMBER REPRESENTING THE ABSENTEE SHAWNEE TRIBE
Body
Information: Article XX, Section 1 of the City Charter sets out guidelines and requirements for appointments to the Reapportionment Ad Hoc as follows:
Section 1. - Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee.
There shall be a Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee, which shall consist of nine voting members appointed by the Council on nomination by the Mayor. All members of the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee shall be registered voters of the City and shall hold no other office or position of employment in the City government.
Section 2. - Appointment and meetings of the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee.
The Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee shall meet to review and make recommendations on ward boundaries as follows:
a. When the City proposes to annex or de-annex property; or
b. During the last quarter of the calendar year prior to the release of the Federal Decennial Census and continuing through the release of the final Census; or
c. Upon the unanimous recommendation of City Council.
In the case of proposed annexation or de-annexation, members of the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee shall be appointed within ninety (90) days of adoption of any such proposal. For purposes of reviewing the Federal Decennial Census, members of the Reapportionment Committee shall be appointed six (6) months prior to the year of the issuance of such census. The Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee's members shall be residents and registered voters of the City's wards, (one at-large and one from each ward).
Section 3. - Criteria for ward boundaries.
No later than one hundred and eighty (180) days after the appointment of the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee pursuant to Section 2(a) or 2(c) herein, or after the issuance of the Federal Decennial Census when the Committee is appointed pursuant to Section 2(b) herein, the Committee shall pass and refer to the City Council a resolution to retain or readjust the wards and their boundaries to comply with the standards set out herein. Wards should be formed so as to equalize, as nearly as practicable, the population of the several wards. In addition, each ward should be formed of compact, contiguous territory with boundaries drawn to reflect and respond to communities of common interest, ethnic background, and physical boundaries, to the extent reasonably possible. Ward lines shall not create artificial corridors which in effect separates voters from the ward to which they most naturally belong.
Section 4. - Public hearing on proposed boundaries; votes required for passage.
At least ten (10) days before voting on the resolution, the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee shall hold a public hearing thereon. At least five (5) votes shall be required for passage of the resolution, and the vote on passage shall be by roll call and shall be entered in the minutes of the Committee. A map showing the wards and their boundaries shall be appended to the resolution.
Section 5. - Council shall have final authority.
The resolution shall then be referred to the City Council which shall, within thirty (30) days, conduct a public hearing on the proposed resolution and adopt the resolution without modification, reject the resolution, or adopt the resolution with such modification as the Council deems necessary. If any changes in ward boundaries are adopted by City Council, such changes shall also be adopted by ordinance and codified in the Code of the City of Norman. In any alteration or amendment of the resolution as proposed by the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee, the City Council shall use the same criteria for ward boundaries as hereinabove adopted for the use of the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee.
Thereupon, the new wards and boundaries shall supersede the previous wards and boundaries for purposes of the next primary and general election, and for all other purposes on the day on which the terms of the Councilmembers elected that year begin.
Section 6. - Annexed territory; reapportionment between census report.
When territory is annexed to the City, the Reapportionment Ad Hoc Committee, by resolution in the manner provided hereinabove, shall incorporate it into the adjacent ward or wards or shall readjust the wards and boundaries in the manner provided hereinabove, as it deems appropriate.