The City of Jefferson will no longer have voting wards.

The City Council discussed the topic at a few of their meetings this past summer and decided to change an ordinance to eliminate the three wards. City Administrator Mike Palmer explains why the Council wanted to get rid of the wards.

“The Council felt that over time that it’s limited the amount of people who can run. So what they’re doing is eliminating these wards in favor of everything’s just at-large. So anybody can run from anywhere in town when there’s an opening available.”

Palmer points out that there’s an election to fill a vacancy, which won’t be affected by the change.

“We have one position to fill here at the next general election which is to fill out a term, which is almost three years. We have three people running for that spot and they are out of that ward (two). Once these wards start expiring on their terms, it’ll all go to at-large.”

The City Council is expected to finalize the decision at next Tuesday’s meeting. It will take effect the next time there is a City Council election.