Creating Metro Districts for Consolidation Charter

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - There is a clearer picture of what a new consolidated government would look like. Monday night, the Charter Commission voted on the details of the governing body.

Commissioners called this one of their toughest jobs yet. In creating the new metro districts, they had take into account race, population, and city borders and they could not agree on a final look.

The charter commission made several decisions on what a metro government body will look like. There will be seven districts that will cover the county with one representative per district.

A map, created by a demographer, was the leading candidate for how the districts would look, but it was rejected by the commission. The issue was overlap. For example, mostly Memphis districts would include parts of Germantown or other suburban cities.

"People that live in the city, they're thinking possibly their voice is being diminished," said Lou Etta Burkins from the Charter Commission.

That's because this map makes it possible that an elected leader from Germantown could represent a mostly Memphis district. It would be possible for seven or more non-Memphis representatives.

"It's a better situation for the county who has no voice in the affairs of Memphis today, which is the economic driving force for the whole region. So it's definitely important, so why would we want to limit that, they could go beyond that," said Richard Smith from the Charter Commission.

The demographer will bring alternative districts to next week's meeting but this district map was approved Monday. There are four multi-member districts.

Two are made up of mostly white residents, and two are mostly black residents. There will be three elected officials per super district. Together with the 13 single member district representatives makes a total of 25 elected officials.

"It allows us to have 13 single member district people and 12 multi member district people. Which gives us that balance I was really pushing," said Jim Strickland from the Charter Commission.

The 25 representative governments were approved by many commissioners because it means more representation for most in a smaller overall government.