City Council Responsiveness

By Robert J. Levy

If the elctorate so desires, change the number of city council members to 7 or 9; and again, if so desired, elect them by districts rather than city-wide elections.

Early this year one of the city council members resigned, and the other four decided, for a number of reasons, of which the stated one was that the time required for a city wide campaign, and the expense of a special election was not justified for the short time that the new member would be available before this fall election.

Elections in which the member represented a single district would be less expensive to run, the new candidates are more likely to be known to a larger percentage of the voters in that district than they might be in a city wide election, and special elections would be required to ensure that the district continued to have representation.

Additionally, citizens might be more willing to approach "their" city council member than they are to talk with those lected in city wide elections.

These two changes would require city-wide elections before asking for a revision of our city organization.

One person said he'd be happier if I could give an example of a city or about our side had district elections. I will investigate this, and report my findings in a later update.