Section 305. Redistricting Procedure

The boundaries of Council districts shall be reestablished in 1982 and every tenth year thereafter. Whenever district boundaries are to be reestablished the Council shall appoint, not later than February 1 of the year prior to the year in which redistricting is to be effective, a commission on redistricting, composed of two members from each political party chosen from a list of five names submitted by the Central Committee of each political party which polled at least fifteen percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for the Council in the immediately preceding regular election. The Council shall appoint one additional member of the Commission who shall serve as chair. No person shall be eligible for appointment to the Commission if they hold any elected office. By September 1 of the year prior to the year in which redistricting is to be effective, the Commission shall prepare, publish, and make available a plan of Council districts and shall present that plan, together with a report explaining it, to the Council. The plan shall provide for Council districts that are compact, contiguous, and equal in population. No less than fifteen calendar days and no more than thirty calendar days after receiving the plan of the Commission, the Council shall hold a public hearing on the plan. If the Council passes no other law changing the proposal, then the plan, as submitted, shall become law, as of the last day of November, as an act of the Council, subject to Sections 320 and 321 of this Charter. Such law shall be adopted by resolution of the County Council upon notice and public hearing.