Kent City Council has yet to resolve disputes around the city’s ward maps.
It is routine for the city to revise ward boundaries after each U.S. census, but three years since the last census in 2020, the council still hasn’t come to a solution.
At its meeting Wednesday, Kent City Council considered an action to amend the city’s charter to change ward apportionment from 10% to 15% population variance.
If the council votes in favor of a charter amendment, it must go on the ballot for Kent voters to decide. Under the current charter, the ward boundaries must be redrawn, increasing the size of Ward 5 in particular. The change to 15% would mean the boundaries can largely stay the same.
The 2020 census data was inaccurate because of the pandemic, undercounting the true population in some areas because students living in off-campus housing had to move home, said Ward 5 Council Member Heidi Shaffer Bish.
“The problem is not being addressed with the redrawing of these districts, because the problem is the giant undercount of the census,” she said. “We all know that was bad data.”
The proposed changes to Ward 5 would confuse voters, Shaffer Bish said.
“You’re going to hear probably some arguments that the people in those wards will be confused,” she said, “and I think they will be.”
While Shaffer Bish and the majority of the council were in favor of putting the charter amendment on the ballot, Ward 1 Council Member Garret Ferrara said changing the charter was “bad policy.”
“What you’re doing is setting a precedent that every time you don’t like the information — and you want to call something bad information, bad data, misinformation, whatever you want to call it — then you’re going to turn around and say, ‘Well, that’s justification for changing our policy or changing our charter,’” he said. “It’s a terrible precedent to set.”
The solution would be to adopt a new map under the current charter and let the next census straighten out the data, Ferrara said. To amend the charter would be likened to gerrymandering, he said.
“We’ve asked an independent person to come up with the boundaries for the wards, and that’s precisely what everybody wants throughout not only Ohio, but the rest of the country,” Ferrara said. “When you talk about gerrymandering, you’re practicing the same things that you’re complaining about.”
The council voted yes, 6-3, to bring the amendment to Kent voters, with council members Gwen Rosenberg and John Kuhar joining the opposition.
The amendment did not win enough favor to suspend the rules, and therefore only passed a first reading. The amendment must now pass a second and third reading at the next two council meetings Oct. 18 and Nov. 15 to get on the ballot.
Other options for the council would be to adopt a new map to be in compliance with the 10% population apportionment, or it can wait until the next meeting of the charter review commission to make the change in 2025.
Grace Springer is managing editor. Contact her at [email protected].
