The city clerk’s office plans to hold a public hearing in October to allow residents to comment on a map of future city council districts, contrary to what City Council members were told on Tuesday.

The public comment hearing, scheduled for Oct. 13, is required by the city charter and city code to give citizens a chance to weigh in on how they want new districts to be drawn.

City Clerk Sarah Johnson is tasked with drawing up six new council districts, as is required every four years. The map is hers to draw, and does not have to be approved by the council or the public.

On Tuesday, council members were told by Chief of Staff Laura Neumann and Deputy City Attorney Wynetta Massey that there would be no public hearing. That drew concern from council members, who said they understood from the charter that locals should be allowed to tell Johnson what they think of her plan.

On Thursday, the mayor’s office released a formal schedule for the redistricting process, including the Oct. 13 date for the public hearing. Also, on Sept. 10, the council will hold an “informal” meeting to talk about the current map.

Two weeks later, on Sept. 24, Johnson’s preliminary new district map will be released. And she said she had always planned on holding a public hearing afterwards.

“There never was a change in the schedule,” Johnson said when asked about Thursday’s announcement. “It was just some misunderstanding and miscommunication that happened at the council.”

The public hearing will be held three weeks before Johnson’s deadline for the map, which means she could conceivably redraw the map after hearing from citizens at the meeting.

Johnson said the reason for the confusion at the council meeting was simple — on the same day of the meeting, she and her office were swamped with the local election on whether or not to allow Memorial Health System to be leased to University of Colorado Health. She didn’t have time to attend the council meeting, to make sure everything was clear.

“Now that the special election is over, the focus will be redistricting,” Johnson said.

Johnson wouldn’t say whether or not the public comment meeting would influence how she draws the map.

“I’m not going to anticipate anyone’s comments on a plan that hasn’t been drawn yet,” she said. “I hope it goes very smoothly, but I don’t know. I can’t foresee that.”

The deadline for the new map is between Nov. 3 and Dec. 3. According to the schedule released by the mayor’s office, Johnson will release a Final 2012 Redistricting Report on Nov. 13.

A big difference in the new council map is that there will be six districts and three at-large council seats. Currently, there are five at-large seats and four districts.

The next council election will be April 2, 2013, but Johnson said only the six districts seats will be decided. Those seats are now filled by Tim Leigh, Lisa Czelatdko, Bernie Herpin, Angela Dougan, Brandy Williams and Council President Scott Hente. Hente is term-limited.

The other three — Jan Martin, Val Snider, and Merv Bennett — will be the three at-large council members, Johnson said, and won’t be on the ballot.

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Colorado Springs City Clerk Sarah Johnson Photo by DANIEL CHACON/The Gazette file