Hudson's weight problem

Hudson's five wards have widely varying populations. The weighted voting system used by Common Council is designed to compensate for this, but it appears to be unconstitutional and is thought by some to give disproportionate power to 5th Ward aldermen. Below, I offer some schematic, fairly simple suggestions for achieving population balance. The percentage of the city's population living within each ward is shown in blue; they are my unofficial estimates. Where I've decreased the number of wards, I've suggested additional at-large aldermen. Such changes call for a more extensive discussion, but for now here's a start.

Existing Ward Plan 5 wards / 11 total representatives: ● 10 ward aldermen (2 each ward) ● 0 at-large aldermen ● 1 at-large Council president
Ward Scheme A 3 Wards / 9 or 11 representatives: ● 6 ward aldermen (2 each ward) ● 2 or 4 at-large aldermen ● 1 at-large Council president Comments: Wards 2 and 4 are combined, as are Wards 1 and 3. Additional tweaking of Ward 5's boundaries would make the ward populations equal.
Ward Scheme B 3 Wards / 9 or 11 representatives: ● 6 ward aldermen (2 each ward) ● 2 or 4 at-large aldermen ● 1 at-large Council president Comments: Wards 1 and 2 are combined, as are Wards 3 and 4. Additional tweaking looks to be more complicated than Scheme A. The boundary between 1+2 and 3+4 would need to move slightly east, and Ward 5 also would have to be adjusted. Another possible disadvantage is that the entire waterfront would be contained within one ward.
Ward Scheme C 5 Wards / 11 representatives: ● 10 ward aldermen (2 each ward) ● 0 at-large aldermen ● 1 at-large Council president Comments: Wards 1 and 4 are joined; Ward 5 is split. (For expedience I've used the existing internal voting district boundary, but this might not be ideal.) The resulting ward populations are very close, although the configuration of Ward 1+4 appears gerrymandered and improbable.