GLENS FALLS -- The issue of population inequity in the city's ward system has resurfaced as the 2010 Census approaches.

"To become the most equal system possible, it should be a redistricting effort," said 3rd Ward Councilman Scott Watson.

Ideally, Watson said, the city Common Council would prepare a plan for a public referendum in 2012, so it could be in place for the next election of a mayor and Common Council in 2013, he said.

Watson, who was just elected to a new four-year term, said redistricting will be among the issues he focuses on during his second term.

"It's not a matter of any one councilman having more power than another. It's a matter of them all having an equal voice," he said.

Population shifts since the ward system was put in place in 1963 have resulted in a wide disparity among the five wards.

Population in the wards, according to the 2000 Census, ranged from 1,829 in the 4th Ward to 3,843 in the 3rd Ward.

With those figures, the 4th Ward is about 36 percent overrepresented and the 3rd Ward about 34 percent underrepresented, according to Scott Reid, who was the city attorney in 2003, when the issue came up previously.

Population in the other wards varies widely as well, according to the 2000 Census, with more people in the 2nd Ward and fewer in the 1st and 5th wards (see box).

Watson and others say the disparity runs counter to a legal obligation to have a system of "one man, one vote" representation.

Glens Falls Mayor John "Jack" Diamond said Common Council members are welcome to explore the issue, if they choose.

"It's not one of my priorities," he said.

Diamond said it's not clear to him whether the concern is about council members having an equal voice, or about some council members having a larger work load because they have more constituents to represent.

Watson said both issues come in to play.

Residents of wards with fewer people, essentially, receive a different level of representation because council members in those wards have fewer people to divide their time among, he said.

The council is currently made up of six members, with one seat representing each of the city's five election wards and one - the councilman-at-large - representing the entire city. Each member has one vote, with the mayor voting only in the case of a tie.

Redistricting has come up before.

In 2003, then Councilwoman-at-Large Kay Saunders, near the end of her term, called for either redrawing ward boundaries or establishing a weighted voting system, in which each member's vote would be proportionate to the population in his ward.

Saunders also called for eliminating the councilman-at-large position from the council.

Then-Mayor Robert Regan said at the time that an alternative solution could be to have all council members elected in citywide races, rather than from individual wards.

The issue came up again in 2007, when a bipartisan group of 26 city residents called for the redrawing of ward boundaries.

At the time, the group wanted the Common Council to have a plan ready for a referendum in 2008.

But the group put its effort on hold after Warren County Board of Elections commissioners advised waiting until after the 2010 Census, in order to have current data, said Todd Shimkus, who acted as spokesman for the group in 2007.

Shimkus, president and chief executive officer of the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday the voters group will be vocal about the issue again after next year's census.

Also in 2007, Peter Henner, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, wrote the city, threatening litigation if the disparity was not remedied.

"This is a situation which represents an obvious constitutional deficiency," Henner wrote.

Ultimately, if not addressed, the city will face a lawsuit, so it's better for the city to devise its own plan than have no voice in a court-mandated restructuring, 4th Ward Councilman James Brock said Friday.

But, Brock said, it would be unfortunate if the issue became controversial and occupied all of the council's time.

"The hard part is going to be figuring out a way to do it so it's not political, so that one party isn't trying to get the advantage of the other," he said. "Something's got to be done, but I don't want the council to have to spend its time working on it to any degree. So I think before we start discussing changing the boundaries we need to discuss the process, and then from there go about it."

Watson said he will recommend that the mayor appoint a nonpartisan citizen commission once the 2010 Census is completed to review the ward system and recommend a plan.

"I don't feel this need ever become a political quagmire to deal with," he said.

Watson and Brock both said they would rather have ward boundaries redrawn than a weighted voting system established or the makeup of the council changed.

Brock said reducing the number of council members could weaken the leverage the council has with the mayor, who only votes in case of a tie.

With fewer council members, a mayor would not have to persuade as many members to align with his position to gain a majority, Brock explained.