https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...a8c3c0de45.html

QUOTE
The City Council has begun the redistricting process, just weeks before candidates begin to file for next year’s municipal elections.

Under a proposal considered Tuesday, some precincts would be split to draw new boundaries for the six council districts. Three of the nine council members run at large.

Michigan City — along with East Chicago, Lake Station, Merrillville and other communities — is working with DePauw University professor Kelsey Kauffman to finish redistricting efforts by the end of the year. Kauffman is offering her services for free.

A sneak peek of the $1.6 million enclosure will be held in December to honor the people involved in the construction, including donors, Director Jamie Huss said.
Doug Ross

Kauffman advised the council to not factor Indiana State Prison inmates into population counts for council district maps. Courts have forbidden that practice, although the prison population was included in drawing the current district maps. The prison is in District 3, which is represented by Democrat Michael Mack.

At the congressional level, prison populations are small enough that they don’t make much difference in drawing district maps, Kauffman said. “At the local level, it can make a huge difference.” She cited a city in Iowa that had a district whose population was 98% inmates.

Michigan City’s District 3 is 44% prisoners, Council President Angie Deuitch, D-at large, said.

Mack said the prisoners deserve representation like everyone else. Kauffman explained that the prisoners aren’t there voluntarily, usually aren’t from their prison’s host city and can’t vote while incarcerated.

Many of the prisoners don’t leave the city when they’re released, Mack said. Councilwoman Tracie Tillman, D-5th, who works with child support for the LaPorte County prosecutor’s office, backed him up.

Mayor Duane Parry said the council districts were all out of proportion in 2012, the last time district maps had been drawn. Blue Chip Casino had come to town, displacing a large number of people from District 1, and District 4’s population was 14% higher than the others.

The council decided 10 years ago to use voting records in determining the number of adults in each district and discovered, using that criterion, that the population had grown by 900. The 2012 council didn’t look at how or whether the adults voted, Parry said.