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Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Ind. Law - Still more on: New Albany lawsuit seeks new council districts
Updating this ILB entry from July 8, 2006, Dick Kaukas of the Louisville Courier Journal reports today in a story that begins:
The New Albany City Council made "a good-faith effort" but failed to comply with an agreement to settle a lawsuit seeking to realign the city's voting districts to make their populations more equal, a federal judge said yesterday.U.S. District Judge John Tinder in New Albany, ruling from the bench, extended the period for council compliance by 60 days. By then, Tinder said, the council should file notice of what it had done to meet the agreement's terms.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in May 2006 demanding that boundaries of the city's six voting districts be redrawn, would then have 15 days to indicate whether they were "satisfied, or the effort fell short," Tinder said.
A new nine-member council elected last month will take office next month, about midway into the 60-day period, and it wasn't clear yesterday whether the current or new council will try to meet the deadline.
The council's next regular meeting is Dec. 20, although a special session could be called. It would take three votes to pass a redistricting ordinance, but in emergencies the council has sometimes suspended its rules and given an ordinance three votes at a single meeting.
Larry Kochert, the council president whose term expires this month, said after yesterday's court hearing that his preference is not to wait.
"I would like to get it done," he said, adding that he will follow the wishes of the council majority.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 5, 2007 11:08 AM
Posted to Indiana Law