Mayor Martin O'Malley has scrapped plans to have a committee draw up a new City Council district map, saying he will do the job himself.

Shortly after voters passed a measure Nov. 5 to reshape the council, O'Malley said he would appoint a committee to divide the city into 14 single-member districts - a change from six three-member districts.

But O'Malley believes map-making by committee would complicate the difficult task of redistricting. The districts O'Malley draws will be subject to the council's approval.

"This is going to be an exercise in disappointment," he said. "There are going to be people disappointed. There are going to be neighborhoods disappointed. There will be political leaders disappointed. You can't avoid that. ... So I think doing it by committee just creates more opportunity for disappointment.

"I'm going to do the very best I can to do it right and do it fairly, respecting the integrity of neighborhoods and the greatest asset we have as a city, which is our diversity. And then the council will do its best."

Question P, which voters passed 2-1, cuts four members from the 19-seat council and eliminates multimember districts. The council president will continue to be elected at large.

O'Malley must submit a new map to the council by February, and the council will have until June to approve it or pass an alternative. The changes will take effect for the 2004 election.

The measure was placed on the ballot by a coalition of community activists and labor unions known as CLUB. It was opposed by O'Malley and the council.

CLUB members, who were pushing to have a representative on O'Malley's committee, said they were disappointed that it would not be formed.

"We were hoping to have a voice on the committee," said Margaret Spicer, chairwoman of CLUB. "We would really like to have some say in what's going on with Question P. We're the ones that did all the work. I think we should have some input in that."

Forgoing a committee will not cut the public out of the process, O'Malley said.

"I'll welcome any advice that anybody wants to give me," he said. "There are neighborhood groups and other people that are sending me their one-page principles of things they'd like me to keep in mind as I put together a map to introduce to council."

Council President Sheila Dixon has formed a redistricting committee with a member from each district, plus Vice President Stephanie C. Rawlings Blake and herself. Other members are Paula Johnson Branch of the 2nd District, Robert W. Curran of the 3rd, Nicholas C. D'Adamo Jr. of the 1st, Rochelle "Rikki" Spector of the 5th, Melvin L. Stukes of the 6th and Agnes Welch of the 4th. Rawlings Blake and Branch are co-chairwomen of the committee.

The purpose of the committee is to educate council members about what criteria the map needs to meet, so they can better evaluate the mayor's proposal, Dixon said.

She said she wants to ensure that wherever possible, the map respects natural boundaries, does not divide neighborhoods, reflects the city's racial diversity and does not pit poor neighborhoods against wealthy ones.

Expecting legal challenges from the coalition, the council plans to hire a private lawyer to evaluate the plan to make sure they are operating "in a legal realm," Dixon said.