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BETHEA: I got kind of a cold, so I'm losing my voice. Well, when you invited me, I
<br />wasn't sure what I could contribute. And I thought about it over the past several days and I'm
<br />still not sure what I can contribute, but I will try. One of the things we benefitted from was
<br />having a very good attorney, Chris Yuen here. I mean, it really, it really was a help. He was very
<br />good at keeping himself out of the policy decisions, acting as an attorney. I might have applied
<br />for the job and asked for your consideration, because I think it's an interesting job, but I don't
<br />think I could have accomplished that. I'd be, you know, expressing my own opinions, etcetera,
<br />etcetera, and I don't think that's the role of counsel. And I think that's one of the things you need
<br />to get straight with whoever you do have, what you -, the expectations that you do have, who's
<br />counsel for the Committee.
<br />But anyway, I thought at least an appearance here would give me a further opportunity to
<br />disclaim any responsibility for single member districts or for the four-year term. Pete L'Orange
<br />over here, made that motion. No, Sherwood Greenwell made the motion, Pete seconded it. And
<br />I simply didn't have the votes; that's the real truth of it. It was me and the labor guys. And
<br />there's a funny story attached to this. At the time, I didn't favor the single member districts
<br />either, and our little group, which was a minority group, didn't favor the single member district.
<br />But we thought, sure, if it's coupled with a two-year term, that the voters couldn't be so
<br />misguided that they would go for it. And so we thought both would go down in flames. In
<br />retrospect, for whatever it's worth, I think the single member district was okay. But I think the
<br />two-year terms are ludicrous. I just think it's very bad for County government. So we were just
<br />dead wrong in our analysis of what the public wanted.
<br />I think, as I was trying to think about what your role is when you first start off, I think you should
<br />get some information about some very basic questions. In other words, get some information
<br />about the basic style of government. Are you going to be having any interest at all in the City
<br />Manager type of situation? And you may decide that no, that just -, that's not going to work for
<br />us in this County. And if you get some background work done, get it dug up and get it read, then
<br />at least you can put that in perspective if you get some testimony about it.
<br />The -, right now, we have what I think is generally considered a strong Mayor system because the
<br />Mayor has a veto; that's the usual differentiation that I think of. And you have to decide, well, if
<br />we're going to stick with the same kind of a system, do we want a strong Mayor with a veto?
<br />One of the things that was particularly disturbing to me was what I thought to be the
<br />disproportionate balance between the Mayor and the County Council with the County Council
<br />having the two-year terms and the Mayor having a four-year term. It just didn't suit me. But I
<br />think that you got to get back at that and think about what you feel about it.
<br />Another basic question is should people run for Council on a nonpartisan basis? Is this party kind
<br />of a set-up at the County level, where you're not dealing with international policy or even national
<br />policies, you're dealing with things of less significance. And I think we have seen, just to venture
<br />my opinions, some very -, a lot of discord arising out of partisanship because of the system we
<br />had, and I'd rather see Council people line up philosophically rather than on the basis of party.
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