Politics & Government

Florissant Faces Realigning Ward Boundaries as Result of 2010 Census

Mayor Schneider believes the city should wait to address redistricting until a full council is seated.

Florissant, like other municipalities, will be required to realign its ward boundaries in keeping with the results. Florissant grew by 3 percent since 2000, but its population also shifted due to some annexations.

Each council member will appoint a ward representative to the commission who would recommend boundary changes. Those changes could affect future elections.

This round of realignments could bring some significant changes.

Find out what's happening in Florissantwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Because of the annexations since 2001, boundaries in every ward may change,” said Ward 7 Councilwoman Karen McKay.  She’s said she’s not sure that’s happened before.

Ward 7 was changed in 2000 to include an area near that had been part of Ward 5, she said. But due to annexations, she said it might change even more.

Find out what's happening in Florissantwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However Council President Keith English, Ward 4, said he didn’t think ward boundaries would change drastically.

“I think wards 7, 8 an 9 may change because of the annexations, but I don’t think we’ll see much change in the other wards,” English said.

He said the council likely would address redistricting during its June 27 meeting.

However, said he prefers that city council members would wait to appoint commission members until after the council is fully seated.

“As long as the city charter allows it, I think we should wait a couple more months until we have a full council,” Schneider said. “The fair thing would be to wait until we have a full council, so that the citizens of Ward 3 and Ward 6 are represented.”

Schneider vacated the when he was elected mayor.

The in April between Steve Purgahn and Pat Stinnett was declared a tie. Each candidate received 470 votes. The two candidates again will seek the office on the Aug. 2 ballot, which is when the Ward 3 council representative will be elected.

Councilman Andrew Podleski continues to fill in for Ward 6. Podleski ran for mayor in April rather than seek re-election in Ward 6.

McKay said she had settled on a person to appoint to the commission to represent Ward 7, but declined to name the appointee. She said the person wants to serve and has experience serving on a commission to redraw boundaries.

“It’s always good to be able to hit the ground running,” McKay said. “This is a big responsibility, but I think the last commission did a good job with redistricting.”

English said he had not yet settled on a candidate, but is accepting and reviewing qualifications of those in his ward who wish to serve on the commission.

Correction: The article incorrectly misidentified which high school was added to Ward 7. McCluer High School had been added to the ward; originally, the article stated McCluer North High School.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Florissant