§3.03   WARDS, DETERMINATION AND REAPPORTIONMENT.

   (A)   The existing ward boundaries in effect on the effective date of this Charter shall remain in effect until changed as provided in this Charter.

   (B)   No later than the 15th day of January, 1981 and every five years thereafter, or at any other time in order to provide substantially equal population in each ward, the Council shall, by motion, appoint a Ward Boundary Review Commission consisting of either three or five electors of the City. No more than two-thirds of the Commission's membership shall be registered to vote in the primary of the same political party. The Commission shall study the need to reapportion the City's four wards and shall report its findings and recommendations no later than twelve months after their appointment. The report shall be filed with the Clerk of Council, and shall be in the form of a proposed ordinance or resolution, approved as to form by the Director of Law. The Council shall have sixty days after the report is filed with the Clerk of Council to approve or reject the report submitted by the Commission by the passage of the ordinance or resolution proposed by the Commission or the passage of an appropriate ordinance or resolution rejecting the report. If the Council shall reject the report of the Commission, the Council shall reapportion the City's four wards by the passage of an ordinance or resolution within one hundred eighty days after the date of the filing of the Commission's report with the Clerk of Council. If the Council rejects the report of the Commission but fails to reapportion the wards within one hundred eighty days after the filing of the Commission's report with the Clerk of Council, the ordinance or resolution constituting the report of the Commission shall become effective as fully as if it had been passed by the Council. Any ordinance or resolution reapportioning wards or adjusting ward boundaries shall become effective immediately, but shall be subject to the initiative and referendum powers of the people, as provided for in this Charter. Any reapportionment or adjustment of ward boundaries under this section shall provide for substantially equal population in each ward.

   (C)   All wards shall be bounded, as far as practical, by county lines, streets, alleys, avenues, public grounds, canals, watercourses, Municipal boundary lines, center lines of platted streets or railroads, or lot lines of platted subdivisions. Redivision of the City into wards by the Council or the Commission shall not terminate or otherwise affect the unexpired terms of ward Council members; however, at succeeding elections, ward Council members shall be elected from the wards as reapportioned or re-established under this section.