Joliet City Council considers straw poll on new district maps

The Joliet City Council on Tuesday is likely to indicate its preference on a new district map without taking a final vote.

Council members at a workshop meeting Monday discussed the three maps created so far with some saying it was hard to tell exactly where boundary lines ran from digital versions they had seen.

The maps are being drawn ahead of the April 4, 2023, election for five district council seats because of population shifts in the city after the 2020 Census.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who also is up for re-election in April, suggested the council delay a final vote on the maps until the June 21 meeting to give the public an opportunity to review them.

“I think we should open it up to public feedback because it’s going to affect some people,” O’Dekirk said at the meeting.

The final version of the maps will determine which district seats potential candidates can pursue.

Councilman Larry Hug, who also suggested the maps be available for public review, said the council should take a straw vote so people know how it is likely to vote and can focus on that map.

Hug contributed to the creation of one of the maps after discovering that a map proposed by staff would cut the subdivision where he lives, Warwick, and the Wexford East subdivision into two separate districts.

“One of the most horrendous things to do is represent someone in a split subdivision if you can avoid it,” Hug said, at times saying city staff should have noticed the impact. “It’s splitting subdivisions that wasn’t needed.”

Staff created two maps using GIS software.

The first map simply divided the city into five council districts of roughly 30,000 people.

That map removed Councilwoman Sherri Reardon from District Three, which she now represents.

Another map was created through GIS software that maintained an equal distribution of population while keeping all current council members in their districts. That map created the subdivision splits that Hug wanted changed.

The third map, which Hug suggested, also keeps all council members in their districts.

City Manager James Capparelli said the June 21 meeting is the latest at which the maps could be approved while still meeting deadlines required to have them ready for the election cycle.

“We’re a bit under a time crunch to get this done,” he told the council.

The City Council has eight members and the mayor. But three of those members are at-large and elected by the entire city on different years than the district council members, who are elected only by residents in the five districts.

District Three, which stretches into the far West Side where most new home construction is occurring, was the only district to have significant growth, which triggered the remap.