Council districts discussed by Milton council

Milton Town Council has begun exploring the possibility of establishing districts for town council seats.

While any implementation of council districts would not happen anytime soon, council wants to get ahead of the issue and begin discussion. As large new developments like the Granary at Draper Farm come online, under the town’s current at-large system, those developments will change the geographic and demographic look of the town. 

Council heard a presentation Oct. 6 from John Laznik of the University of Delaware’s Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research.

Laznik described the process of establishing districts as a math problem, with the object being to try to get close to an equal number of people in each district. Laznik said that after the census is complete, the state is given data for redistricting, mainly for House and Senate districts, but also for county and municipal redistricting. The numbers for establishing districts in Milton would come from that.

Laznik laid out two scenarios: a three-district map or a four-district map. The maps were based on 2020 data, but were used to illustrate for council what a district system could look like. Laznik said districts need to be compact and contiguous. 

Laznik said actual implementation of a district strategy would be up to council. That goes for how council itself would transition to representing districts, whether council elects to have a system of two members per district under a three-district system with the mayor as an at-large seat – similar to what Milford does – or something different. 

Mayor John Collier said, “This is a future consideration, but we need to start working on it today.”