Baltimore City voters may soon weigh-in on the process of redrawing city council districts.

Council President Nick Mosby introduced a charter amendment Monday night that could change the way the mayor redistricts the city. The proposed amendment comes after Mayor Brandon Scott vetoed the city council’s redistricting map last fall, enshrining his original proposal into law. At the time, President Mosby and other city councilmembers criticized the process; Councilmember Zeke Cohen, District One, called the fast timeline “flawed” and said it gave the council little time to hear input from residents.

Mosby’s proposed amendment is meant, in part, to ensure the public has a chance to weigh-in on any future maps.

“The mayor, or the administration, will be required to hold a series of public meetings about the proposed changes prior to introducing it to the council,” explained Mosby.

Under new rules in the proposal, once the map is introduced to the council it must be passed within 60 days.

Also included in Mosby’s plan is a revision to the timeline as to when the charter redistricting proposals must be introduced. Mosby says his proposal would require the map to be introduced 10 months before the primary elections: the current deadline is three months.

The proposed charter amendment also strikes the mayor’s power to veto a redistricting map.

During the 2023 redistricting process, Mosby repeatedly expressed concerns that the mayor would issue a last-minute veto on any map put forward by the council — effectively stripping them of any opportunity to revise and come up with any additional proposals. Ultimately, that is what happened. The mayor vetoed the council’s proposed map after, according to the city solicitor, the council’s deadline to make changes had passed.

“I have not come to this decision lightly,” Scott wrote in a statement at the time. “When we began this process, I made it clear that I wanted to ensure that each district had similar populations, including demographic makeup, and that each district also had within it an anchor institution.”

Scott noted that some districts fell below his population requirements; he wanted each district to be within a certain percentage of the median population.

If successful, the amendment goes before voters in November.

WYPR has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment on the newly proposed charter amendment.