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1 <br />MINNESOTA STATUTES 2024 205.84 <br />205.84 REDISTRICTING; CITIES WITH WARDS. <br />Subdivision 1. General provisions. (a) In a city electing council members by wards, wards shall be as <br />equal in population as practicable and each ward shall be composed of compact, contiguous territory. Each <br />council member shall be a resident of the ward for which elected, but, except as otherwise provided by <br />paragraph (b), a change in ward boundaries does not disqualify a council member from serving for the <br />remainder of a term. <br />(b) Notwithstanding any home rule charter provision to the contrary, in a city of the first class where <br />council members are elected by ward to serve for four years to terms that are not staggered, if the population <br />of any ward changes by five percent or more, all council members must be elected to new terms at the first <br />municipal general election after ward boundaries are redefined under subdivision 2; provided, however, that <br />if no municipal general election would otherwise occur in the year ending in "2" or the year ending in "3," <br />a municipal general election must be held in one of those years. <br />Subd. 2. Effective date. After the official certification of the federal decennial or special census, the <br />governing body of the city shall either confirm the existing ward boundaries as conforming to the standards <br />of subdivision 1 or redefine ward boundaries to conform to those standards as provided in section 204B.135, <br />subdivision 1. If the governing body of the city fails to take either action within the time required, no further <br />compensation shall be paid to the mayor or council member until the wards of the city are either reconfirmed <br />or redefined as required by this section. An ordinance establishing new ward boundaries pursuant to section <br />204B.135, subdivision 1, becomes effective on the date of the state primary election in the year ending in <br />two, except that new ward boundaries established by a municipality in a year ending in one are effective on <br />the date of the municipal primary election in the year ending in one. <br />Subd. 3. Transition schedule. The governing body of a city electing more than one council member in <br />each ward may adopt an orderly transition schedule to biennial November elections in which only one council <br />member in each ward is elected in any municipal general election. <br />History: 1974 c 337 s 17; 1981 c 29 art 7 s 38; 1983 c 62 s 11; 1986 c 444; 1991 c 349 s 38; 1995 c 8 <br />s 6; 1999c237s3; 2010 c 313 s 5,6 <br />Official Publication of the State of Minnesota <br />Revisor of Statutes <br />