This has been bantered about but maybe it’s just me…not to my satisfaction - now this article in today’s Scene magazine discusses reducing the number of Council seats for Cleveland wards. Here is a 2005 post about it from Callahan’s Diary
There is a charter review commission now and Bill Callahan is on it. And Vickie Eaton. Having both of them as charter review commissioners makes me feel as if a good discussion can result in good Charter changes. Neither Bill nor Vickie strike me as people who would shy away from good quality brainstorming. You may know others on the commission and by all means, I suggest contacting them. And here is a Cool Cleveland discussion with Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams.
I think it could make good sense in reducing the number of Council Seats but I have questions. If they use census data to justify it, okay. The question then becomes, how do the wards with fewer people in them keep their voices? How do keep away the wolf of disenfranchisement?
These are topics that don’t have to result in doing nothing; what I hope can happen is that many of us will talk to the commission members through email or on the phone. We can all read the City Charter on line (mostly) or at a local library branch. City Hall will also be delighted to sell us each a copy (!!!).
How do you feel about the issue of reducing the size of Council? We know we can save a bit of money. If we do it, how do we do it fairly? There is a Meet The Bloggers event next Wednesday at Gypsy Beans, it will be a good time to engage Councilman Cimperman on this issue. What say you? What should we tell Bill Callahan and Vickie Eaton? What are the other pros and cons of a reduction? Peace Out - 3C
Update: I’ve been researching. One thing I thought about was At-Large Council seats. So I said to myself, let’s find out what is on line about this idea and what other cities have already done what is proposed and how is it working? That second part is going to be a key research item for me over the next few weeks. The first part? Well here is a link to Springerlink where they feature a book and I guess an excerpt. They claim what matters is how many represent you, not whether they are at-large or individual ward representatives. The book is called Public Choice and it deals with the issue of spending and Ward representation. It was written in the nineties……going on line to the Cleve Public Library site now to see if I can get it. Has anyone read this? Peace Out Again
Feb 2nd Update:Lively, constructive, insightful discussion occurring on Lisa Renee’s Glass City Jungle regarding the reduction of council issue in Toledo. Please read! Look at the total numbers/salaries ferreted out there:
Cleveland - $67,735.92 with 21 Council members
Columbus - $37,710 with 7 members
Cincinnati - $55,701 with 9 members
Akron - has 13 members
Canton - $48,000 with 9 members
Findlay -has 10 members
Warren - has 10 members
I still don’t know how I feel about the issue, but one thing begs a question: Columbus has more land mass (and people?) now than we do yet they have 7 Council-members. We have 21? I will continue to add to this post as new info arises. I would say we need a Charter Review town hall meeting on this issue alone, what do you think?
And here is a site called Third World Traveler which talks about all forms of proportional representation, at large representation, ward representation. Interestingly - it speaks to the history of places that went back to some form of at-large rep to try to break up big city machines. We couldn’t possibly have that problem here could we?
2/6/08 update: I found an article written by Rich Lord in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2006 Pittsburghers were dealing with this issue and they had a petition drive going on to get it on the ballot; the article predicted if it made the ballot it would pass. However, Pittsburgh still has nine councilmembers not five. I emailed the Gazette reporter to see if he can shed light.
VERY quick response from reporter Rich Lord; he said the Firefighters Union pulled their support from the effort and that made the effort DOA.
The more I read the less I am convinced this is a reasonable action for us to take unless it’s part of a larger effort in budgetary ‘redesign.’ My only new thought on this was, if two council wards were joined, would more people get good results? There are issues that affect areas, not wards, and maybe considering two wards together can bring more solutions. Forget the salary savings they seem like a drop in the bucket on their own. Peace Out, again! 3C
2 responses so far ↓
1 LisaRenee // Feb 6, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I admit I was surprised that you had that many council members and the amount of their salaries. It seems ironic that here in Toledo they are trying to eliminate at least three seats considering we only have 12 compared to what you have in Cleveland.
2 Carole Cohen // Feb 6, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Lisa, your Glass City Jungle was so enlightening on this topic. I keep thinking, if they only eliminate a few seats it almost makes no sense; they would have to cut it in half to make sense and I think that would be a hard won road to travel, to get that passed!
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