Population decline not significant enough to force redrawing of St. Clair neighborhood boundaries – The Voice

The City of St. Clair will not see any boundary changes in its three polling wards following the 2020 U.S. Census.

The city charter requires that neighborhoods be divided as evenly as possible by population after each federal or state census.

With little population change over the past decade, City Clerk Annette Sturdy and the Election Commission have recommended not changing the neighborhood lines.

The city council approved the recommendation at its regular meeting on December 6.

“As you know, the US Census is taken every 10 years,” Sturdy said. “The city charter calls for a review and possible reallocation of neighborhood dividing lines as a result of these findings. You have in front of you a resolution and a copy of the current neighborhood map. The election commission – which according to the charter consists of the city attorney, city superintendent and city clerk – met with the deputy clerk and decided at this point not to recommend any changes to the current division.

Jim Downey is the town attorney, Warren Rothe the superintendent and Morgan Hustek is the deputy clerk. The committee met on November 24.

“We discussed the minimal population change, a loss of 21 people from 2010 to 2020; the current registered voters in each ward, all of whom are within 77 registered voters of each other; current minimum wait times for in-person voters – and determined that the current card is appropriate and fair, ”Sturdy said.

The neighborhood system recently grabbed the headlines. In November, residents voted to change the city’s charter to make it mandatory for city council members to live in neighborhoods they were elected or appointed to represent.

“This is not part of the consideration today, but for your information, we have also talked about the consolidation of constituency polling stations in the near future,” Sturdy said. “Discussions on this will continue. “

Currently, the voters of the 1st district vote at the town hall; The voters of the 2nd district voted in the Lutheran church Emmanuel; Residents of Ward 3 vote at Pine Shores Golf Club.

“The recommended action for today is to approve the resolution as presented,” Sturdy said.

Council member Butch Kindsvater said the map in the council package did not match the map on the town’s website.

“The separation between the 2nd and the 1st district going from north to south, is it the railroad?” ” request.

On the website map, the dividing line was the railroad tracks, Kindsvater said. The north-south dividing line on the packet map was east of the railroad tracks.

Sturdy displayed the website map on his laptop. “Oh, I see,” she said. ” Yes you are right. The map on the website has it right on the tracks.

Sturdy didn’t know how printing the card could have changed the limit.

“I don’t know how you did it, but it’s pretty cool,” Kindsvater said with a laugh.

The board passed the no-change resolution with a 7-0 vote.

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer. Contact him at [email protected].