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RAY: Okay, George.
<br />MARTIN: Thank you. First of all, I apologize for being late this morning. On
<br />your statement about a hybrid, and I believe that some of us have discussed this, as
<br />our Chairman has indicated, not possibly officially, but if there was a hybrid, as Sue
<br />was indicating, I think you'd have more accountability because a six -three, six single
<br />districts, three at -large, same number of people, the six would follow the State House of
<br />Representatives boundaries so you would gain some, and possibly lose some,, here
<br />and there. But when it comes to a situation where you need to touch up on something
<br />in your district, you'd have two people to talk to, and it makes it a lot easier for
<br />individuals, I think, from the public to address certain situations. So, with that in mind,
<br />it's not as bad as what you're saying, but I do hear what you're saying about taking
<br />away from what was the intent in 1990, and I don't think we're trying to do that. What
<br />we're trying to do is what is being said on that side, better government, if at all possible,
<br />and that's 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 1
<br />do think I understand you guys well, where you're coming from and that sounds fine.
<br />When I talk about diluting these things, if you make the districts larger, or if you have
<br />two people from every district, then the districts get twice as large. When you're
<br />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:
<br />RAY:
<br />Sure you can. It takes you a little bit longer.
<br />I think we understand the point, yes. Marni.
<br />HERKES: I think I mentioned to Lesley that we have something like 15
<br />models of government. One of the other models is the six -three model, but out of those
<br />three at -large, one of those ends up being the Council Chair and the Mayor. And the
<br />Mayor with the CEO in the County. So we have a whole bunch of ideas to play with
<br />here that are expanding our minds, and I think we've set out to do something to make
<br />government a little bit more responsive to the people, as well as more accessible. We
<br />have a hard time getting people for Boards and Commissions, as well as more
<br />efficient, so I think that in that discussion, we're all open. I'm amazed, and I'm really
<br />pleased, that we're all open to a whole bunch of different ideas,not using personalities
<br />of people that have been in, or not using models that we have. The National League of
<br />Cities has a lot of different models and we're getting a lot of information from them.
<br />GRAHAM: Good. Thanks. My only important thing is to try to pretend that you
<br />have, still on your board, the guy that wrote the bridge book, you know. Just keep him
<br />there as one guy to listen to even if he's not there.
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