ONEONTA -- The Common Council approved hiring a consultant to help with redistricting during a meeting Tuesday night and gave a green light to applying for state funding for the Dietz Street parking lot upgrade.
The city hired the Center for Research Regional Engagement and Outreach at the State University College at New Paltz for $10,450 to provide consulting services. The consultant will meet with the city's Redistricting Commission in City Hall at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Mayor Dick Miller said.
Miller had urged the council to hire a consultant.
"This is a case where an impartial, expert consultant with no vested interest in the outcome will provide exactly the kind of unimpeachable information to form the basis of judgments to be made by the commission and, ultimately, the council," Miller wrote in a July 5 memo to council members.
The city's Redistricting Commission will study options to redrawing ward lines toward the principle of "one person, one vote." Population is uneven in some wards, with the result that smaller wards are disadvantaged politically, David Merzig, city attorney, said previously.
On Tuesday night, Second Ward Council Member Larry Malone said he supported hiring a consultant because working with census data is difficult, redistricting hasn't been done in 40 years, and residence halls at the college campuses have been built in the past four decades.
Eighth Ward council member Chip Holmes voted against hiring the consultant. According to draft minutes of a meeting earlier this month, Holmes said he wasn't convinced of the need for a consultant and expressed concerns over the cost. Council members Madolyn Palmer of the Fifth Ward and Bob Brzozowski of the Seventh Ward were absent Tuesday night.
In another measure, the council authorized the mayor to submit an application to the state's Consolidated Funding Application under the Green Innovation Grants Program for the Dietz Street Parking Lot Redevelopment project.
Miller said the project, estimated at about $750,000, calls for drainage improvements, landscaping, lighting upgrades and paving. The project has garnered support from council members and downtown merchants, he said.
If approved, the grant would provide about $100,000 toward the drainage portion of the project, Miller said, and the balance of costs would be funded by the city through the general fund or debt.
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