Ward reduction

In the coming year, Green is hoping aldermen will pursue policies that herald the “Year of the Worker.”

Aldermen will go on break on Friday for the campaign season. The 2022-23 legislative session ends April 17.

Starting next session, aldermen would make $72,000. They currently earn $36,000. The measure should get a final vote next Friday.

Proposition R would put a citizens commission in charge of drawing wards in the future. Its backers have already said they would not use the new process until 2030.

Legislation redrawing the Board of Aldermen map passed without a single "no" vote. That's in stark contrast to deadlocks elsewhere, including St. Louis County.

One more vote is needed to send the map to Mayor Tishaura Jones. Because of a 2012 charter change, the redistricting process cut the number of aldermen from 28 to 14.

Nine members of the aldermanic legislation committee voted in favor of the redistricting map. One voted against it, one voted present, and one abstained.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s legislation committee released an updated draft of a redistricting map Thursday. It reduces the number of wards from 28 to 14, as approved by voters 10 years ago.

Over the next eight to 10 weeks, an aldermanic committee will draw a new map of the city with half as many wards. The Board of Aldermen is legally required to do so by the end of the year in compliance with a charter amendment approved by voters in 2012.

The year 2021 is shaping up to be a pivotal one in St. Louis politics — with both a new mayor being chosen and a new system of approval voting being pioneered. But the big shifts won’t stop with this spring’s elections: The city is also set to reduce its number of wards from 28 to 14, ultimately shrinking the size of the Board of Aldermen by half.