Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register
The Springfield City Council will move ahead with finalizing a new ward map July 19. A vote was scheduled despite objection from Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin at Tuesday night’s committee of the whole meeting. McMenamin challenged the process saying council members shouldn’t rewrite maps “to advantage themselves.”
The map being voted on is a modified version of one presented by the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission in mid-May.
The commission submitted two maps to city council, but one of the maps broke up 50-plus precincts, which was rejected by council members.
Such maps are redrawn based on the latest Census data. By state law, the maps must be approved 90 days before candidates can start filing petitions for the April 4, 2023 consolidated election, in this case, by Aug. 23.
Several discussions about the maps and trading off neighborhoods emerged among council members in the last several weeks, Ward 6 Ald. Kristin DiCenso acknowledged. The practice is not new.
McMenamin, who can’t run in Ward 7 in 2023 because of term limits, said he was never consulted during the process and the commission’s original map should have been adopted.
None of the 10 city wards, McMenamin said, was affected as much as his, with about one-third moved to other wards.
The commission’s goal in creating the map was to distribute the population equitably among the wards, meaning as close to 11,439 people as possible in each ward.
The map has to conform to a 1987 consent decree that resulted from a federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the city.
“The Regional Planning Commission didn’t have any self-interest or skin in the game when it drafted that (first version),” McMenamin said. “When council members get involved, they do have self-interest. They have skin in the game.
“I think the voters would rather not see aldermen and alderwomen tip the scales to create a more preferred map for themselves. I think incumbency already has massive advantages and we don’t need to add to that.”
The council members who had “the most significant changes,” McMenamin claimed, in the latest version of the map were Ward 6 (DiCenso), Ward 8 (Ald. Erin Conley) and Ward 10 (Ald. Ralph Hanauer).
“Somebody got together, I assume so,” he said.
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During the meeting, Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams Jr. stuck up for McMenamin.
“If it was my ward, I would have wanted to be part of the process,” he said. “To not contact him, in my opinion, was wrong. I feel everyone who benefitted from taking away from his ward or changing his ward should have the responsibility to contact him and speak with him.”
Molly Berns, the executive director of the Regional Planning Commission, said after the first draft was drawn, it then becomes “a legislative process” for council members.
The commission, she said, took the suggestions they made through city council coordinator Tim Griffin.
“We simply ran the data to make sure they were going to be in compliance with the parameters that go into remapping,” Berns said. “Once (we knew) that data was going to work, then they requested we (redraw the map).”
Even acknowledging that he can’t run for reelection, “I do care about Ward 7,” McMenamin said. “I don’t like it being broken up like this.”
To see the new ward map, go to the city’s website.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 