Concord City Council Changes Redistricting Proposal

After hearing testimony from three residents and discussing the legal problems and ramifications of its , the Concord City Council voted on Sept. 26, to amend a November ballot question, pushing back the effective date of newly drawn voting ward lines.

The council amended its previous proposal, adding a provision that would change the implementation of redistricting ward lines to Jan. 1, 2014, instead of Jan. 1, 2012. The change allows and , two candidates who signed up to run for ward council seats but would have been redistricted out of the wards they were running in, to serve if they are elected. They also added language to the question to remove any problems state Rep. Mary Gile might have had being removed from her district before the end of her term.

Mayor Jim Bouley said given the situation, with two candidates who could be negatively affected by the original ballot question language, the compromise was “a reasonable, fair solution.”

“So now, whoever is the top vote getter in those wards, will be able to serve the people who elected them,” he said.

Candidates react

The two candidates affected by the change in the wards lines were pleased with the changes.

“It’s a starting point,” Kretovic said. “It’s absolutely a starting point and something that we needed so both Kris and I could have some positive momentum towards our campaigns and not be constantly looking back wondering, are we going to be seated?”

Kretovic said she understood that the plan would be temporary but knows the council will eventually come up with a long-term solution.

“Now we just need the voters to say yes,” she said.

“I think this will work but it’s unnecessarily complicated,” MacNeil said. “I appreciate it … but that wasn’t what I was trying to share. I was trying to share my frustration that I even had to come to this point.”

MacNeil said this legal snafu and consternation proved that municipal government needed to rewrite rules, simplify procedures, and make processes easier for normal people and not just lawyers and professionals.

“This explains what’s wrong with City Hall,” she said. “It’s complete chaos.”

Problems remain

Even though this settles the problem of redistricting for the two candidates and the state representative who would have been otherwise shifted out of their districts, problems remain.

According to the new plan, the changes aren’t implemented until 2014. However, the next municipal election season would open up for candidates in September 2013, a full three months before the redistricting changes. This will put many potential candidates for the 2013 municipal races in electoral limbo, since they wouldn’t be able to run in districts they were being moved into and wouldn’t be able to serve in districts they were elected to, if redistricted out of the ward.

Bouley said while this was true, he would be submitting a plan to the council, before the end of the year, to take the redistricting process out of the city charter and make it a city ordinance. This change would remove the voter approval process from redistricting. Bouley said the voters would need to approve the plan and he hoped to present the plan and have it proved by the council before the beginning of the year, in order to get the change on the presidential primary ballot.

Missing the meeting were at-Large City Councilor and Mayor Pro Temp Dan St. Hilaire, who was at a N.H. GOP fundraiser, Ward 5 Councilor Rob Werner, Ward 8 Councilor Dick Patten, Ward 9 Councilor Candace Bouchard.