Berrien County will keep its 13-district format for the next decade, the Berrien County apportionment commission determined at a meeting Tuesday.

Berrien County Clerk Louise Stine said although a map hasn’t been finalized, the five-member apportionment commission unanimously voted to keep 13 districts. Each district is represented by one commissioner on the county board.

The apportionment commission is comprised of Stine, Prosecutor Art Cotter, Treasurer Bret Witkowski, Democratic Party Chair Shirley Stansberry and Republican Party Chair Stephen Smith.

After every decennial census, the state requires counties to determine a district map. The deadline for sending the plan to the state is June 6.

Eleven-district and nine-district plans, presented by Stine and Cotter respectively, were also considered by the apportionment commission Tuesday.

Stine said she and Cotter both supported an 11-district format, but they agreed to vote for the 13-district plan when they realized the rest of the commission was behind retaining 13 districts.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Stine said she supported 11 districts, mainly because it would allow for the elimination of many of the “splits” in the county districting map. A “split” is where there are multiple commissioners representing one municipality.

“The perfect example is Benton Charter Township is split by four county commissioners,” Stine said. “The 11-member plan makes Benton Township whole with one commissioner. It’s much easier on the township residents to understand who their commissioner is.”

There are currently 10 splits in the map, but an 11-district plan would reduce that number to four, according to Stine.

Stine also said eliminating two commissioners would save the county more than $60,000 a year.

“Over 10 years, it’s a significant amount of money,” she said.

Witkowski supports the 13-district format, because of the financial solvency and checks and balances he says it provides. He is concerned that if the number of commissioners is reduced, more of them would become full-time commissioners, creating more bureaucracy.

“One thing we have going for us is that our commissioners are part-time. It’s a great checks and balances system,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Having part-time commissioners who have to go back to the real world is really working for us.”

There are three more public meetings of the apportionment commission on May 6, May 17 and May 31 at the county’s administration center, 701 Main St. in St. Joseph. The meetings take place at noon, except for May 17, which starts at 6 p.m.