14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-County councilman asks for more reps in consolidation

County councilman asks for more reps in consolidation

By Brandon Bartlett - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Rachel Folz - email

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - We should know next week if the issue of consolidating Evansville and Vanderburgh County will be on the November ballot.

An update on the reorganization's progress was given to county officials Wednesday morning.

When Becky Kasha, Chairwoman of the City-County Reorganization Committee, took the podium to give a progress report to the county council, she was hit with a firestorm of questions.

The reorganization committee favors a government headed by a mayor and a common council.

That council would consist of 11 members; eight voted from geographic districts and three at-large.

"Under the current form of government, there's seven members that represent the county, nine represent the city," James Raben from the Vanderburgh County Council says. "If we accept this as proposed today, the county has two representatives. The city still has their nine."

But Kasha says that's not necessarily the case.

"You could have all three at-large people from the county, as we know it now, be elected or they could be a combination of city and county."

Kasha says her committee is using numbers from the 2000 census.

Once new numbers are released on 2012, there could be a higher number in the county and the districts would have to be redrawn, regardless of consolidation.

"It's an issue of having the population in the various districts be equal because the county is sparsely populated," Kasha says. "That becomes the problem."

Kasha says her committee should know by its next meeting if they are on target to meet the deadline to get this issue on the November ballot.

The next meeting of the reorganization committee is June 10.

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