Why is the City Council redistricting?

In 2016, the City Council voted to change Carmel from a class 3 city to a class 2 city. With this change, the council gets an additional two seats, one district and one at large. Not only does this change allow Carmel more elected representation to serve the city, this change also allows the mayor to appoint a financial expert to oversee the city’s $140 million budget, versus having an elected clerk-treasurer potentially with no financial background assume those duties.

The law specifies that after every decennial census, cities must look at their population and determine if their districts are equal in size.

District seats are to ideally represent equal numbers of residents. In fact, the law specifies that after every decennial census, cities must look at their population and determine if their districts are equal in size. However, when moving from a class 3 to a class 2 city, and adding the additional seat, this process had to be completed prior to one year before the next municipal election.

To complete this task, the city hired a consultant who has aided in nearly 100 municipal redistricting processes. The consultant guided city council members through a variety of legal questions, to ensure our redistricting met strict guidelines. To see the presentation to the council, visit this page. As a class 3 city, Carmel has five district council members, and as a class 2 city, Carmel will have six.

Using our city’s population after the most recent special federal census, the city council determined that the ideal district size would be just over 15,000 residents. It was then incumbent upon the council to determine which precincts went into which districts, a process that was primarily guided by the goal of getting each district as close as possible to the ideal population.

As a result of the redistricting process, Carmel has a new West district which runs the entire length of the township from north to south, and also includes the Village of West Clay.

To ensure you understand where you are to vote, visit this map to see where your precinct falls. If you have any other questions, contact a city council member or the Hamilton County Elections office.

Authored by Laura Campbell, Ron Carter, Sue Finkam, Anthony Green, Bruce Kimball, Kevin Rider and Jeff Worrell