Doug Johnson of National Demographics Corp. gave a presentation during a recent city council work session on Apache Junction council members being elected to represent a district rather than being at-large.
Council members and the mayor had discussed moving to a district system during a recent council retreat.
If it were to have a council district system, the city of Apache Junction could be drawn into six districts of equal population with the mayor remaining a citywide position, Johnson said during an April 14 council work session.
“They have to be equal population,” he said. “It’s not an equal number of registered voters or voters casting ballots or anything like that. It’s people counted by the Census.”
Elections would remain staggered with three council seats up for election every two years. Only the voters in a council district would vote for the representative of that district, Johnson said.
A change to by-district elections must be approved by voters unless districts are ordered by a judge, he said.
“Typically the council votes to put the issue on the ballot,” Johnson said. “The voters of course could circulate an initiative with signatures to put it on the ballot themselves.”
Changing to council members representing a district and redrawing district maps following every decennial Census may cost $30,000 to $150,000 if there is a lot of public outreach, he said.
“We have some jurisdictions that have sent a postcard to every voter saying ‘We’re drawing districts; come participate.’ So you’re looking at at least $30,000 essentially for one of these projects and it can get up to $150,000. Of course in a city like Mesa or Phoenix it goes up even more,” Johnson said.
Council discussion
Councilmember Bambi Johnson said she and another council member are neighbors.
“I’m probably not a fan of this at this time just because I don’t think the city is really anywhere near this yet,” she said. “Let’s say that ‘poof, we are going to do districts’ and we drew them out. So based on it having to be split up relatively small, so many people, I mean so basically none of our council members could live in any vicinity to each other.”
A council member would need to live in the district he or she would run in, Johnson said later.
“So yeah that can definitely create issues if a lot of us live within proximity of each other,” Councilmember Darryl Cross said.
Councilmember Bryan Soller asked if there could be three districts with two council members in each.
“I believe so. I haven’t seen it done here but ... you might have to do it by charter, as a charter amendment. So yeah, you might have to get a charter to do that,” Johnson said.
“Because looking at this, the way our population is growing, three districts would be better than six,” Soller said.
Vice Mayor Robert Schroeder asked how many Arizona cities and towns with council districts are nonpartisan.
City Attorney Joel Stern said most are nonpartisan.
As more residents move to housing subdivisions in south Apache Junction, residents there could run for council and dictate the future of the city, Cross said later.
“One of the reasons why this was brought up is the thoughts behind our city kind of being spread out with the new development to the south. And the thought process is, you know, in a very short order they could stack the elections and dictate everything about Apache Junction — how the rest of the horse community lives, how some of the mobile home parks live and they could override a lot of things that we currently hold near and dear to our hearts,” he said.
Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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