For more than 50 years, Ravenna’s ward boundaries have been divided along the city’s main roads.
Residents north of Main Street were in wards 1 and 2, and those south of Main Street are in wards 3 and 4. Residents who live east of Chestnut Street are in wards 2 and 4, while those west of Chestnut in wards 1 and 3.
While residents long have been able to determine their wards using geography, the population has shifted. Some council members have found themselves with hundreds more constituents than their peers.
A national consultant has arrived to advise the city on the path to redrawing its boundaries to make the distribution of residents more fair.
Trevor Martin, a project manager with the national League of Women Voters, said nearly 62% of the city is not properly represented in the current ward structure.
Martin said Ward 1 has 628 fewer residents than average, and Ward 4 has 752 fewer than average. Meanwhile, Ward 2 has 383 more residents than average, and Ward 3 has nearly 1,000 more residents than the city’s average.
Martin advised the city to involve the public in a process that would redraw the boundaries to make the redistricting more fair.
Martin has been advising Alliance in Stark County through a similar process. He said he also has worked with Cleveland, Nelsonville and Toledo.
How does the process work?
Martin said after the census, cities are required to redraw their ward boundaries, and failing to do so violates state and federal law. Ravenna has not completed a reapportionment since 1972.
He suggested a process involving ample citizen input to redraw Ravenna’s ward boundaries to keep them within 10% of the average district population, determined to be 2,831, according to the most recent census.
“Ravenna now has a rare opportunity for fair, voter-focused wards,” he said. “A process for achieving this can be, and should be, done with ample opportunity for citizen input, with full transparency, with the goal of prioritizing what’s best for voters.”
He said there are many communities throughout the state that have gone decades without reapportionment. The process would involve a lot of public input so the people most affected would have input.
“Right now, the way the city is made up, it is that nice, pretty quadrant,” he said. “Maybe it stayed that way for a while because it is so nice, and maybe you have other services connected to quadrant 1, 2, 3 or 4.”
Some cities and states have used open source mapping software to guide congressional, state and local mapping, he said. The software tells how many people would be in each zone.
“Our focus is first and foremost on community,” he said. “We don’t want to do a lot of disruption.” For instance, changing a precinct can alter people’s voting habits or polling location.
Under the city’s current setup, Ward 3 Councilman Matt Harper represents 3,827 residents. That’s 1,624 more than Ward 1 Councilman Paul Moskun; 613 more than Ward 2 Councilman Tyler Marovich; and 1,748 more than Ward 4 Councilman Tim Calfee. Harper’s ward is home to housing developments that weren’t in place when the city’s ward boundaries were drawn.
Martin said council could work with his office, a consultant with Kent State University or another specialist, or could use the software on its own.
Councilwoman Amy Michael expressed concern that changing ward boundaries could affect grant applications, since income might shift from one part of a city to another. City Engineer Bob Finney said income criteria is determined by neighborhood, and ward boundaries are not a factor.
Councilwoman Carmen Laudato said she would set up an ad-hoc committee to look into the issue.
Martin said the Portage County Board of Elections would be involved to explain the impact on polling locations, and the League of Women Voters of Kent also would be involved, to educate residents and facilitate meetings.
The process would need to be done by early December, which would be 150 days before the city’s next municipal election.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna looks to redraw wards for 1st time since 1972
Reporting by Diane Smith, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
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