MORGANTOWN — Morgantown’s 4th Ward could soon be home to two members of Morgantown City Council.
The Morgantown Ward & Boundary Commission is recommending adjustments that, if adopted, would place 3rd Ward Councilor Louise “Weez” Michael’s home address in the 4th Ward.
The city’s charter mandates the volunteer commission review and, if needed, equalize the city’s wards “as nearly as practicable” every two years based on population and registered voter data.
Commission Chairman John Trumble noted the commission, with the support of city council, has focused its alignment efforts on voter counts, which was difficult this time around.
“Over 5,500 inactive voters were removed from the totals we were working with two years ago,” Trumble said. “This year’s ideal voter count is 1,916 per ward. Voter roll changes saw voter counts down to as few as 1,317, which was Ward 4. It had a net loss of over 1,200 voters just in that ward alone.”
The boundary changes are significant. Trying to describe them all here would be clumsy and confusing. The commission’s final report is available on the city’s website as part of Tuesday’s committee of the whole agenda.
The result, however, is a map that equalizes the wards to that target number of registered voters (1,916) to a fairly tight tolerance. The 3rd Ward with 2,018 (+102) and 5th Ward with 1,846 (-70) would be the high and low marks, respectively.
By comparison, the 6th Ward had nearly 1,100 more registered voters than the 4th Ward when the commission began its work.
Trumble said the process, which once involved the trial and error of hand-drawn maps and calculators, has been made simpler and far more accurate thanks to GIS Coordinator Marvin Davis and the ArcGIS software.
The outcome, he said, is “true, data-driven analysis.”
According to Trumble, the ArcGIS system generated eight initial outputs that the commission pored over and tweaked before presenting its final proposal.
When asked, Trumble said all eight moved Michael into the 4th Ward. Current Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin has represented the 4th Ward since 2007.
“Obviously, I’m kinda sad about it because I really like my ward and I’ve worked really hard up there to do some things and get our neighborhood back; get rid of vacant houses, fix the roads and sidewalks and alleyways that have been ignored for so many years,” Michael said. “But, it is what it is I guess.”
If council adopts the commission’s recommended changes, Attorney Ryan Simonton explained Michael can remain in the 3rd Ward seat until her term ends in 2027. Were she to run for council again at that point, it would have to be for the 4th Ward seat, which would next be up in 2029.
This is not the first time the city’s Ward & Boundary Commission has proposed changes that would impact sitting members of council.
Exactly a decade ago, in 2014, a previous commission presented a map that would have moved Selin out of 4th Ward and into the 7th Ward, which was represented by Nancy Ganz at the time.
Council ultimately rejected the commission’s recommendations and approved its own map with a 4-3 vote.
The entire issue turned into an extremely contentious affair that resulted in a heated public divide within council. It was listed as a major part of the justification for a failed effort to remove four sitting members.
