Council district plan floated--David Josar / The Detroit News

Lansing lawmakers emphasize Detroiters would make decision through referendum.

DETROIT -- A movement is gaining ground among Lansing lawmakers that could result in City Council members being elected from specific parts of Detroit instead of representing the entire city.

State Rep. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, said he is trying to determine whether there is momentum to try to pass legislation again that would initiate a referendum to institute a council-by-district. Outgoing state Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-Detroit, said he's also had discussions with people in recent weeks from unrelated political camps that have raised the possibility of changing the way the city elects council members.

"The chance of the city going to district has probably never been higher," said Tobocman, who lives in southwest Detroit.

Given the turmoil this year surrounding former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the City Council's efforts to oust him, Detroiters are "interested in change," Tobocman said. Johnson echoed Tobocman, and added that no matter what happens, this won't be Lansing forcing its will on Detroit, as many residents believe was done in 1999 when the elected school board was replaced with one appointed by the mayor and governor.

"The final decision is going to be made by Detroiters," said Johnson, who was elected in 2007.

Johnson said he is not sure whether a switch would best be brought by a direct referendum that requires circulating petitions or by passing state legislation that would trigger the ballot question.

But Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said: "This is about Detroit. We can't have people in Lansing telling us what to do." State lawmakers, as they tried to do in 2002, can pass legislation requiring a referendum of city residents to change how they elect council members. The process can also be changed if city residents, on their own, sign petitions authorizing a referendum.

Watson declined to give her opinion on changing the election process, but said the city should do what the people want.

Detroit is the only major U.S. city to not have at least some council members elected from specific parts of the city.

In Detroit, the top nine vote getters citywide win in the City Council race, and the candidate with the most votes is designated City Council president.

Most council members live in and around key neighborhoods, including Palmer Woods, Rosedale Park, Sherwood Forest and downtown Detroit. As a result, many parts of the city, such as growing southwest Detroit or East English Village near the Grosse Pointe border, have no council representative living there.

Tobocman noted that he represents roughly 95,000 citizens in the state House and wonders how one council member is able to know all the issues that affect the city, which is roughly 10 times the size of his district.

"How are they going to know about a spike in crime in all the neighborhoods? Or about a local problem?" he said. "It's tough."

But making the switch may not be easy.

This year, former state Rep. Lamar Lemmons III launched a petition drive in an attempt to get the council elected by district, but the effort petered out, and he was unable to collect the 57,000 signatures needed to make it to a ballot.

The idea of switching back to a district election system, which ended in 1918, has come up every few years in Detroit but has gone nowhere. A referendum triggered by the state Legislature was to go before voters in 2002, but the City Council sued to block it because it did not originate from residents.

The court ruled that the state House and Senate needed a two-thirds vote in both chambers to force the referendum on the city, but the vote fell fewer than 10 short in the House. There was enough support in the Senate.

Some residents are hungry for the change.

"It is a good thing," said James "Jack Rabbit" Jackson, president of the Jefferson-Chalmers Homeowners Association. "It will make our council more responsive to the needs of the area.."

Staff Writer Santiago Esparza contributed to this report.