By JIM BUTLER

Having endured a maelstrom of vituperation during a public hearing on the subject, the City Council is expected to vote today, after hearing public comment, on a proposed reapportioning of three previously reapportioned election districts.

District 4 member Lizzie Felter cites altruistic motives in seeking to streamline boundaries and consolidate split neighborhoods.

The problem with that, in the view of its opponents, is she lives at an address currently shifting with the next election to a different district.

They contend the proposed re-realignment is political self-preservation, Felter not wanting to run in District 3, if even eligible to do so under city charter provisions.

As now drawn, the line between 3 and 4 runs down the middle of Polk, the Garden District street on which she lives. District 4 stretches west, 3 to the east.

Council President and at-large member Jim Villard apparently asked the Rapides Area Planning Commission last year to take another look at the 2020 Census-based districts adopted in the Fall of 2022.

Whether that was at Felter’s request is unknown.

RAPC returned its findings and maps of re-revised districts in March.

The garboil began immediately.