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minutes 10-16-99Page 7 of 75
<br />RAY: Marni, did you have something to say?
<br />HERKES: George wants to go first.
<br />RAY: Okay, George.
<br />MARTIN: Thank you. First of all, I apologize for being late this morning. On your statement about a
<br />hybrid, and I believe that some of us have discussed this, as our Chairman has indicated, not possibly
<br />officially, but if there was a hybrid, as Sue was indicating, I think you’d have more accountability
<br />because a six-three, six single districts, three at-large, same number of people, the six would follow the
<br />State House of Representatives boundaries so you would gain some, and possibly lose some, here and
<br />there. But when it comes to a situation where you need to touch up on something in your district, you’d
<br />have two people to talk to, and it makes it a lot easier for individuals, I think, from the public to address
<br />certain situations. So, with that in mind, it’s not as bad as what you’re saying, but I do hear what you’re
<br />saying about taking away from what was the intent in 1990, and I don’t think we’re trying to do that.
<br />What we’re trying to do is what is being said on that side, better government, if at all possible, and that’s
<br />going to be the intent if, in fact, we do take it up in that manner.
<br />RAY: Bill, sure, if you want to respond.
<br />GRAHAM: Yes, thanks. Just one thing I wanted to say when I started, and I do think I understand you
<br />guys well, where you’re coming from and that sounds fine. When I talk about diluting these things, if
<br />you make the districts larger, or if you have two people from every district, then the districts get twice as
<br />large. When you’re running for office, you walk the districts if you can, right? Well, you can walk the
<br />district now. You can’t walk the district if it’s twice as big.
<br />MARTIN: Sure you can. It takes you a little bit longer.
<br />RAY: I think we understand the point, yes. Marni.
<br />HERKES: I think I mentioned to Lesley that we have something like 15 models of government. One of
<br />the other models is the six-three model, but out of those three at-large, one of those ends up being the
<br />Council Chair and the Mayor. And the Mayor with the CEO in the County. So we have a whole bunch
<br />of ideas to play with here that are expanding our minds, and I think we’ve set out to do something to
<br />make government a little bit more responsive to the people, as well as more accessible. We have a hard
<br />time getting people for Boards and Commissions, as well as more efficient, so I think that in that
<br />discussion, we’re all open. I’m amazed, and I’m really pleased, that we’re all open to a whole bunch of
<br />different ideas, not using personalities of people that have been in, or not using models that we have.
<br />The National League of Cities has a lot of different models and we’re getting a lot of information from
<br />them.
<br />GRAHAM: Good. Thanks. My only important thing is to try to pretend that you have, still on your
<br />board, the guy that wrote the bridge book, you know. Just keep him there as one guy to listen to even if
<br />he’s not there.
<br />HERKES: We’ll remember that. Don’t get too far out there.
<br />RAY: Bill, since you’re here, and I know you’ve probably paid more attention to County government
<br />that most citizens, and been very much involved in the planning process, you got any comments on City
<br />Manager form of government vs. Mayor? The most common model is Council Manager where the
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