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Consideration of ordinance amending Chapter 1.04 of the Wauwatosa Municipal Code to define modified ward boundaries for the purpose of compliance with new legislative maps, to be applied to current and future aldermanic districts
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Submitted by:
Alan Kesner, City Attorney
Steven Braatz, City Clerk
Department:
City Attorney, City Clerk
A. Issue
Shall the City adopt new ward boundaries in advance of the 2024 fall election cycle and 2026 change in council size in order to conform to 2023 Act 94, which re-drew Wisconsin legislative districts?
B. Background/Options
Following continued litigation over legislative boundaries based upon the 2020 decennial census, the Wisconsin legislature passed 2023 Act 94, signed by the Governor on February 19, 2024, which once again re-drew state legislative district boundaries statewide. Unfortunately, the legislature and courts had continued to use pre-2020 ward boundaries in Wauwatosa. Which means that in many places the new legislative boundaries split our current election wards as defined in sec. 1.04 of the ordinances. As was done previously, Wauwatosa voters were placed by Act 94 into four different assembly districts, which also places our voters into three separate state senate districts.
This was done in the last re-districting act as well, so in 2022 the common council approved ordinances creating a number of “sub-wards” so that individual ballots can conform to appropriate state legislative districts. As an example, Ward 2, as created by ordinance through the regular redistricting process in 2021, was divided into Ward 2A and Ward 2B. However, the new redistricting does not use the same “old” ward boundaries.
In order to match the ward boundaries to the Act 94 legislative districts, we are required to create new sub-wards in wards 8 and 9, and we can re-combine the sub-wards which had been previously created in wards 9, 20 and 21, because those wards are no longer split by state legislative boundaries. Sub-wards created in wards 2, 4, 6 & 12 remain necessary and will be unchanged.
To add another layer of complication from Act 94, the city of Wauwatosa is switching to twelve aldermanic districts in 2026. In order to accomplish this, the council separately passed O-23-01 on January 17, 2023, which re-defined the wards within each of the twelve newly-defined aldermanic districts. This ordinance used the 2022 wards and sub-wards, but is not intended to be effective until the 2026 spring elections. So that not-yet-effective ordinance must also be modified with the new ward and sub-ward definitions required due to Act 94.
The attached ordinance draft is intended to accomplish amendment of the current aldermanic districts with the new sub-wards required due to passage of Act 94, and also amends the not-yet-in-effect O-23-01 provisions defining twelve aldermanic districts by wards and sub-wards in a manner which complies with the legislative district boundaries in Act 94.
It is important to note that, through all of this, the aldermanic districts will not change, just the wards within each district. The current aldermanic districts are the same as they were upon redistricting in 2021, based upon the 2020 decennial census. And the twelve aldermanic districts to be effective in the 2026 spring election are the same as when they were designated by the common council in January, 2023.
I have attached the draft ordinance which is being requested for introduction. I have also attached 2023 Act 94. These may not be very helpful because all of the definitions use census blocks and tracts, so everything just looks like a list of numbers. District and ward maps were included in the current published code of ordinances which more help to illustrate the boundaries, and we will attach maps to this legislative file and ordinance when they have been created. Staff are currently working on the final maps, to illustrate both the current change and the 2026 districts, as well.
C. Fiscal Impact
There is some additional staff time and cost associated with printing and sorting more ballots due to the extra wards created, and some small cost for the few paper maps which are distributed, but the cost is negligible and should not have significant new fiscal impact overall.
D. Recommendation
Recommend the introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 1.04 of the Wauwatosa Municipal Code to define modified ward and sub-ward boundaries for the purpose of compliance with newly-adopted legislative maps in 2023 Act 94, as applicable to current aldermanic districts and also 2026 aldermanic districts.