Two Madison Common Council members are likely to be moved out of their districts as the city goes through redistricting.
The council members - Brian Solomon on the west side and Larry Palm on the east - would continue to serve their districts, even though they will no longer live within them. They would not be eligible to run for reelection in 2013, unless they move back or run for a different seat.
Palm, whose home will be moved into Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway's district, is fighting the change, asking the committee overseeing the process to consider other options.
"I think we should spend a little more energy to make sure that the knowledge base is preserved as best we can," he says.
If he is moved into Rhodes-Conway's district, Palm doesn't know if he would run for her seat or not. But he says being faced with that choice isn't good for his constituents: "How much effort do you put into maintaining your ties with the [current district]? I would not want to ignore the needs of the district, but from a strategic purpose how would I look at it?"
Solomon, who would be moved into Sue Ellingson's district, could not be reached for comment.
Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff had some concerns with early redistricting plans. They had the neighborhoods of Eagle Heights and University Heights being removed from her district, which shifted to the west.
Bidar-Sielaff objected because this plan concentrated even more students into the downtown's 8th District. "It's important to have several alders representing the students," she says. "It gives them more of a voice."
But revised maps have kept those neighborhoods within her district.
