The Minneapolis Charter Commission all but finished work Wednesday on a proposal that would ask voters to give it authority to redraw voting boundaries in the city.

The commission plans to vote July 7 to formally forward the proposal to the City Council, which would devise wording for the charter referendum question. It would go before voters in November.

According to the proposal, the commission would set boundaries for voting wards and park board districts. Currently, such decisions are made by a special redistricting commission often dominated by political party insiders.

The Charter Commission, which has been criticized as an all-white body of 15, would be advised on redistricting by a panel of nine voters that would operate at the commission's direction. The charter proposal would require that the commission try to diversify the membership of the advisory group.

Shifting redistricting duties to the judicially appointed commission was advocated by Common Cause Minnesota and the League of Women Voters, Minnesota. They said that redistricting needs to be more transparent and less partisan.

Nevertheless, the panel voted down several of Common Cause's specific proposals Wednesday. Among them were proposals that communities sharing common interests be kept together in voting districts and that districts not deny racial and linguistic minorities an opportunity to elect representatives from their ranks.

Members said they don't disagree with those ideas but consider them window-dressing because they are already required by law.

The commission deferred several legal points to the city attorney's office, to be answered at the July 7 meeting. Most notably, they deferred what role the commission might play in drawing school board election districts.

STEVE BRANDT