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• with a background in planning and construction on the board of appeals has been deleted. While such background may be an advantage on some technical questions, it could also work against public concerns by stacking the board in a pro-development direction . The kind of background specified in the charter as it now stands wouldn' t necessarily result in persons better able to understand the explanations of a technical consultant than would an intelligent individual of some other background, yet it is very likely to introduce a bias on political aspects of the board's function. Removing the provision does not exclude persons of such background. Impeachment (Section 12-2.1) . This change allows for impeachment of appointed officials as well as elected ones. There is no good reason to put any county officer beyond the law with respect to misdeeds or negligence in office. "Affirmative action" (Sections 13-2 through 13-4 and 15-3) . These changes call for the use of gender neutral wording wherever appropriate in county documents, and encourage appointments which overall will tend to reflect the demographic characteristics of the county with respect to sex, ethnic group , occupation and political party. Declaration of emergencies (Section 13-23) . "well-being" is substituted for "morals" , as more appropriate and less alarming wording. The present requirement of no more than a bare majority of any one party on an appointive body may produce a nonrepresentative board. Suppose , for example, 3 that one party were in the overwhelming majority in the county, and the only other party turned out to be a small one given over to a fringe political or religious ideology. I 'm not claiming this is presently the case , but I don' t consider the idea totally far-fetched, either . In what way would the public interest be served by giving these two hypothetical parties equal representation in appointive positions? They • certainly don' t have it with respect to elected positions, which are the foundation of our democracy. A less extreme example may be less clear , but the principle is the same: a political party has no right to be disproportionately represented. It would be more appropriate to say that no more than a bare majority should be of a given sex or ethnic group . The political affiliation requirement is very likely to lead to some individuals switching parties as needed to fit the requirements. But people do not have the option of switching their sex or ethnic group in order to gain power . Public hearings (Section 13-20) . This change asks that when a decision-making • body takes action which is counter to public testimony, they should give their reasons and attempt to suggest ways that legitimate concerns might be resolved. Nothing is more frustrating to the citizen than to present argument after argument which individual officials admit off the record are valid and weighty, only to have them totally ignored, without any kind of acknowledgement , when the decision is rendered. This more than almost anything else leads to a feeling that government is nonresponsive and irresponsible . Conflict of interest (Section 14-3) . This change prevents an official from 587