Thread by @rlippmann

Good morning everyone - it's #stlboa ward map perfection day! Live-tweet coming later. I didn't actually eat my Wheaties, but my husband promised me Gioia's for lunch, so I've got that going for me.

(Side note, it still feels really weird to say husband.)

Anyways ... here's a rundown of some of the key things as the alders move to reduce their ranks from 28 to 14.

City counselor Sheena Hamilton released an opinion yesterday that the map, in her opinion, passes constitutional muster. She notes that while it would be possible to draw a majority AAPI or Hispanic ward, it would not be compact.

documentcloud.org/documents/2114…

The map came out of the legislation committee on November 22 by a vote of 9-1-1 with one abstaining. The roll call was as follows:
Ayes: Davis, Vaccaro, Coatar, P. Boyd, Muhammad, Martin, Clark Hubbard, Vollmer, Pres. Reed
Nays: J. Boyd
Present: Middlebrook
Abstain: Navarro

If everyone holds their vote, that means there are just six more aye votes needed to eventually send the map to @saintlouismayor.

Aside from giving first round approval to the map today, alders also have to number the wards. This is important, because w/ the reduction, odd wards will have to run twice in 2 years.

I don't know what the process will be for placing the numbers on the map, but @LewisReedSTL has promised it will be public and open.

Reducing the wards also means that incumbents will have to run against each other somewhere. With the caveat that some of the lines aren't clear, these are the matchups I have.
Ward A: Bosley, Page
Ward B: Middlebrook, J. Boyd, P. Boyd
Ward C: Tyus, Evans, Todd

Ward D: Davis, Collins-Muhammad
Ward E: Clark Hubbard, Navarro
Ward F: Pihl
Ward G: Coatar, Guenther, Spencer
Ward H: Ingrassia
Ward I: Rice, Green
Ward J: Vollmer
Ward K: Vaccaro, Narayan
Ward L: Cohn
Ward M: Stephens, Howard, Oldenburg
Ward N: Martin, Schweitzer

Carol Howard terminated her campaign committee as of Oct. 17, and I've heard that several other alders aren't interested in running again.

mec.mo.gov/CampaignFinanc…

The other key thing about the ward reduction - because every ward runs in 2023, there is no fallback for alders who want to seek higher office. That's important for those who might want to be board president.

By city charter, the #stlboa has to pass a map by Dec. 31. Here's a link to the map as adopted by the committee - stlouis-mo.gov/government/dep…

Thus concludes my pre-Board info dump. If you have any questions, I'll try and answer them. Otherwise, see you at 10am.