Marysville could be getting new wards and some residents could be getting a new council representative.
By city charter, council is required to reconsider the council wards every decade following the release of census data. The goal is to ensure council wards are evenly and appropriately distributed.
Council President Mark Reams said that in the past the council clerk and the three at-large council members would meet to discuss and reconsider the ward lines.
“It was done manually and it took forever,” Reams said.
He said he recently sat with a member of the city’s IT staff and looked at city maps.
“We started playing with the data,” Reams said.
He said that as the population of the city changes, there needs to be “some musical chairs going on.”
Reams said that in an hour “we had something balanced.”
“We tried not to break up the precincts,” Reams said.
He said there is no rule that says they can’t break the precincts, but that it is easier for the board of elections if they don’t.
Reams, who is elected as an at-large council member, said based on some comments, he went back and made some minor adjustments. He presented both his initial plan and the revised second option to council Monday’s work session.
At-large council member J.R. Rausch said he likes the options.
“Right now, we really are just looking at tweaking these,” Rausch said. “But 10 years from now, depending on the growth, we may say, ‘Let’s start over.’”
While some council members wanted more time to review the plans, nearly all preferred the revised plan.
Council member Donald Boerger, who represents Ward 4, said he doesn’t like losing the Green Pastures neighborhood.
“It is a little bit heart breaking because I fought very hard to earn their trust,” he said.
Council member Aaron Carpenter, who represents Ward 1, said that when he saw the first plan which took people out of his district, “it made me sad a little bit.”
Carpenter said keeping Mill Valley intact “makes sense.”
Council member Alan Seymour, who represents Ward 2, said splitting the neighborhood could be an opportunity for a more “cohesive” council.
Rausch said it also posed the possibility of two council members from Mill Valley.
“I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it could occur,” Rausch said.
Council member Deb Groat, who represents Ward 3, said she believes the ward lines are “arbitrary.” She said she believes all council members should represent all of Marysville, regardless of wards.
“It doesn’t really matter as long as we are trying to be fair,” Groat said.
She added, “Tell me who I represent and I will go talk to them.”
Under the second option, Ward 2 would be the smallest with 4,032 and Ward 4 would be the largest with 4,306. Currently, Ward 2 is the largest with 5,247 residents and Ward 3 is the smallest with 2,919.
Reams said the residents in the newer housing and apartment developments are “not really in the numbers yet.”
He explained that the second option allowed for growth to occur and for the wards to grow appropriately with the city.
Rauch said that none of the options displace any current council members.
He did say that while he likes the options and they seem fair, he would be “much more comfortable” if the process had been done in the open with more help from other council members.
Reams said he would be open to more options, but would like to bring legislation with the new maps to council in December. The new wards would take effect 30 days after the final reading.