Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 235

FORMERLY

SENATE BILL NO. 236

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE REAPPORTIONMENT OF KENT COUNTY LEVY COURT DISTRICTS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1. Amend Subchapter I, Chapter 41, Title 9 by adding the following new sections:

4105. Redistricting Required

(a) It shall be the mandatory duty of the Kent County Levy Court to redistrict the Kent County Levy Court Districts described at §4102(b) of this title after each regular United States decennial census commencing with the 1990 United States decennial census. Nothing herein shall operate to change the number of Levy Court Districts established at §4102(a) of this title.

4106. Redistricting Procedures

(a) Whenever a changing of the boundaries of the Levy Court Districts is required by 4105 of this Title, the Levy Court, shall within 60 days, after the official reporting of the federal decennial census by the President to Congress, appoint 7 electors of the County who shall comprise a Redistricting Commission. The members of the Redistricting Commission shall be appointed by the Levy Court, one from each of the Levy Court districts of the County and shall not be employed by the County in any other capacity. No more than 4 of the members shall be affiliated with the same political party.

(b) Within 90 days of being appointed, the Redistricting Commission shall file with the President of the Levy Court, or his designee, a report containing a recommended plan for adjusting the Levy Court District boundaries of districts 1 through 6 to comply with the following specifications: (1) each district shall contain contiguous territory; (2) each district shall contain as nearly as possible the same number of inhabitants and no district shall deviate in population more than 15% from the average population for the six districts, the average to be obtained by dividing the number 6 into the total population of the County according to the most recent decennial census. The 7th District shall constitute all of Kent County.

(c) The report of the Redistricting Commission shall include a map and a written description of the Levy Court Districts recommended and shall be in the form of a proposed ordinance. Once filed with the President of the Levy Court, or his designee, the report shall be treated as an ordinance introduced by a member of the Levy Court.

(d) The procedure for the Levy Court's consideration of the report shall be the same as for other ordinances, and the Levy Court is empowered to modify the recommended plan subject, however, to the standards set forth in subsection (b)'of this section.

(e) The Levy Court shall adopt a redistricting ordinance within 60 days after the report of the Redistricting Commission has been filed with the President of the Levy Court or his designee. If a redistricting ordinance has not been adopted by the Levy Court within 60 days of filing the report by the Redistricting Commission, the redistricting plan as submitted by the Redistricting Commission shall become effective as if it had been adopted by the Court.

4107. Early Termination of Terms of Office

The term of any Levy Court Commissioner (except the commissioner representing the 7th Levy Court District which is comprised of the County as a whole) which would not otherwise terminate on the first Tuesday in January following the election of Commissioners immediately following a redistricting shall terminate on such date, if, as a result of redistricting of the Levy Court, he is placed in the same District as another member of the Levy Court whose term does not expire at the same

time, otherwise he shall continue to represent the new district In which he resides until the expiration of his term of office.

Approved June 15, 1990.