The City Commission of the City of Panama City held the first reading of Ordinance 3134 to redistrict the City's four ward boundaries at its Commission Meeting on November 29, 2022.
The City Attorney's Office worked with the Bay County Supervisor of Elections and the city’s Geographical Information Systems (GIS) team to develop a proposed ward map that redistricts the City's wards following the 2020 Census. The census results revealed the City's populace moved around with a large decrease in Ward II and an increase in Ward IV. The largest change within the proposed redistricting is the expansion of the Ward II boundary to include the east-west area between Jenks Avenue and Frankford Avenue that is generally north of 11th Street and south of 19th Street.
The goal of redistricting the wards is that no ward should be more than five-percent over or under the average population of all wards.
The current map of the wards can be viewed in this link, /DocumentCenter/View/7404.
The proposed map of wards can be viewed in this link, /DocumentCenter/View/7405.
The City has single member districts which mean the Commissioner must be a resident of his or her ward and is then elected only by voters in that ward.
A public hearing and second reading of Ordinance 3134 will be held at the Commission Meeting scheduled for December 13, 2022 at 8 a.m. Meetings are held at the Bay County Government Center, located at 840 W. 11th Street.
Original source can be found here.
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