Others claim it will improve the caliber of those on Council.

Norwood voters narrowly defeated a proposal on Tuesday's ballot to allow Council to remain at nine members, despite a declining population.

Because the city's population of 21,675 is below the 25,000 level that state law requires for a nine-member city council, Norwood officials had to order a reduction in council members or place the issue on the ballot and let voters decide.

By an unofficial vote count of 3,983 to 3,873, Norwood decided to reduce Council to seven members.

Barring an unexpected change when the vote count is made official in the next week or so, Council will keep three at-large members, but will have only four ward representatives instead of six.

In consultation with Mayor Tom Williams and other city officials, Joseph C. Geers, Norwood safety-service director, will redraw the boundaries of the wards so the four wards will have about the same number of residents.

Williams said he wants to have the new ward plan in place by the end of December, long before the mid-February filing deadline for elections.

People said they voted in favor of reducing the size of City Council for a variety of reasons: to comply with state law, to save $15,000 a year in council salaries, to raise the quality of council members and to protest the city's financial woes.

"I think we need to get rid of some of them," said Robert Miller, 61, who has lived in Norwood for 35 years.

"I don't see them doing anything.

"Our streets are still bad."

John Lewis, 73, who has lived in Norwood for 61 years, said he voted against keeping a nine-member council because it violated state law and because he thinks the city is too wasteful.

"They're wasting money and we know it," he said.

A small but vocal group called Citizens for a Better Norwood campaigned for the defeat of the nine-member council proposal.

Carmen McKeehan, who co-chairs the group, said the Republican and Democratic parties scrambled to recruit candidates for city offices in the 2003 election.

A smaller City Council, she said, will upgrade the quality of council members.

"It's obvious to me they're desperate to get qualified people to run," McKeehan said.

That argument angers Williams.

"That's the most condescending statement I've heard," the mayor said.

"I resent their implication that Norwood doesn't have enough qualified people.

"If we had 20 council wards, I have enough faith in this city to believe we could find 20 qualified people."

The four-ward arrangement, he said, will make it more difficult for council members to know the needs of their wards and to respond to citizen concerns.

"I've always felt that council members give better service when you have smaller wards," Williams said. "You can have one precinct in a ward with totally different problems than another."

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