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minutes 03-11-00Page 8 of 17
<br />RAY: It is complicated by this 6-3 proposal as well, so you try to accommodate what may happen and that’s something that,
<br />of course, is being proposed on the ballot, so obviously you have to consider that. So, we’re just trying to come up with
<br />something that’s not too complicated. I think that certainly had some influence on going with this just one uniform approach.
<br />GRAHAM: Okay. Let me just use that as a transition into my main issue, of course, which is it feels to me like the main thing
<br />- I mean, I don’t like the 6-3 proposal that you’re having on the Council districts and last time you were here, I gave you a lot
<br />of detail about why I felt people like myself like single member districts, and all that stuff. So let me just put that opposition
<br />of mine in a little bit of another light rather than trying to go over it again. Your Chairman, John Ray, sent me a copy of all
<br />this and when I tried reading all this material, it’s hard to make myself read it. It’s easier to follow it when John’s here talking
<br />to you about why we did this and why we did that. But for me to just grab and start reading about something or other in the
<br />detail stuff, I don’t want to do it. I want to go read a book, or I want to go watch TV, or I want to go outside, or do something.
<br />I don’t want to do it. So, I think what’s going to happen is when it comes time to November and the voters are dealing with
<br />the stuff on the ballot, and they’re going to get something in the mail, they don’t want to deal with it. So the point I’m
<br />stressing is there’s really two main issues I feel that you’re dealing with here. One is the non-partisan elections and the other
<br />is changing of the Council. Changing the Council elections, to me, can poison the whole thing you’re doing. People are not
<br />going to be reading about a department head or the Board of Appeals and try to make an honest vote on the validity of
<br />whether that’s a good change to the Charter. Maybe one in ten people who vote will actually do that. So, I feel like the whole
<br />integrity and thrust of this Commission is going to carry a lot of weight, like if you’re recommending things that people like
<br />and people feel confident in. On that basis, you’re going to carry the bulk of what’s here when it comes to the election. You
<br />are a Commission appointed by the Mayor so -
<br />RAY: And confirmed by the Council.
<br />GRAHAM: So a Commission appointed by the Mayor that’s putting through provisions which are very controversial, which
<br />will have a large vocal opposition. Maybe it will have a large vocal support also, but will have a large vocal opposition, and
<br />provisions we now live by which are not broken, in my mind, and have such sweeping consequences as changing the Council
<br />make-up, to me, really has a lot of potential to really poison your whole thing. And so it wouldn’t be hard for me to see, when
<br />the election results come out, that a couple of these major issues may go one way or the other, but the whole thing could go
<br />down because of all the suspicion, and all the charges, and all the controversy that surrounds it. So, given the fact, that I
<br />haven’t been to your meetings but I don’t believe the public has come out in force and said the way we elect our Council
<br />members is broken, we need to change it. I don’t believe that’s happened. I don’t believe that people feel that, and I believe
<br />that the whole discourse that goes on in the Council, with the wide variety of Council members that we have now compared
<br />to what we had ten years ago, is healthy for the political discourse in the County, even though I recognize that it has some
<br />detriment in the sense of the smoothness of operation, or whatever. So last time I spoke on the merits of it. I’m just
<br />encouraging you now on the consequences of what you’re trying to do here. I think it’s a big mistake and I hate to see a lot of
<br />your other work go down because of that, and I hate to do that myself. I hate to come out here and try to say I don’t think the
<br />Planning Commission is really listening to the people of the County when they propose this kind of stuff, and have that kind
<br />of stuff come back and have prejudicial consequences on everything else you’ve done, which it can’t help but do. So I don’t
<br />like to have to do that either. So that’s what I had to say. I just feel like you’re really taking a step in the wrong direction
<br />unless you really feel it’s the most important thing you need to do so you throw all your apples in that basket. Thank you.
<br />RAY: Okay. Any questions for Bill?
<br />MARTIN: Just a comment and possibly a question. Thank you for your input and I think it’s well taken that exactly one bad
<br />apple may spoil the whole bunch. And if in fact it is a bad apple, then the public will have the right to make the decision
<br />come November. As far as your statement that you like the single district representation, I think maybe there’s maybe a
<br />misnomer that you’re going to be losing that, and you’re not. You’re still going to have your single member district. Nobody
<br />loses their single member district. As a matter of fact, some of the districts get a little bit bigger because of the make-up on
<br />the 6-3. You still have six individual Council members from six individual districts, so to think that you’re going to be losing
<br />anything, again, is a misnomer. The plight of this particular amendment would be the three at-large, and we have discussed it
<br />time and time again, and tried to come up with some manner to make that a representative-type situation too. I don’t think
<br />we’ve succeeded on it to this point but to make it more palatable. I hear what you’re saying and, I guess, a look of
<br />impropriety might be there, but it’s not. Again, you don’t lose anything. You actually gain.
<br />GRAHAM: Well, obviously I lose something or I wouldn’t be here speaking to you about it, right? You may not perceive
<br />what I perceive that I lose, and if that’s the way you feel, that’s fine, but clearly I believe I lose something and I’m educated
<br />on this issue.
<br />MARTIN: Well again, I guess I’m asking for an explanation from you and in there lies the question, what are you losing?
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