The DeKalb City Council decided to keep the same amount of aldermanic seats in DeKalb at a special meeting Monday.

The Council unanimously decided to keep the seven-district system currently in use, but will redefine some districts to encompass recent population shifts as determined by the census polls.

“Let’s leave it the way it is with seven wards,” said 4th Ward Alderman Rita Tewksbury.

Since the DeKalb’s 1990 census population was 33,900, the number of aldermen will remain at seven, said City Attorney Ronald Matekaitis in a memo to City Manager Mark Stevens. DeKalb shall continue to have seven aldermen until the population exceeds 50,000, Matekaitis said.

As part of the redistricting, the Council devised a committee to prepare a new map for review and discussion by the City Council at its January 1992 workshop session.

The new committee will be comprised of three Council members—1st Ward Alderman Amy Polzin, 2nd Ward Alderman Michael Welsh and 7th Ward Alderman Jamie Pennington. Welsh will chair the group.

The committee also will include the DeKalb county clerk, DeKalb city clerk, DeKalb city attorney and DeKalb planning director.

Redistricting is the process of aligning ward boundaries so that roughly the same number of residents are within each ward and must be completed by November 1992, Stevens said.

The City Council also will establish ward boundary descriptions for future growth, he said.

The committee should attempt to redistrict the wards to be nearly equal in population and as compact and contiguous as possible, Matekaitis said.