Wards … At Large … Combination?
Which is better, aldermen elected by wards, at large or a combination of both? This issue was discussed by the Academy’s Philosophy Class. The issue specifically dealt with the City of New Brunswick.
NEW BRUNSWICK — Call it the $100,000 question.
That’s the amount New Brunswick has spent in legal fees over the past year and a half to unsuccessfully block a group of residents from getting a question on the November ballot, one that asks whether to divide the city into wards for city council elections.
Now the city has tapped out its legal options and the question will be put to voters Nov. 3.
Critics call the city’s legal tactics a waste of taxpayer money. City officials say they’re just following the law. Political experts disagree on whether the city’s fight is over the top.
Since last fall, the city has lost three rounds of lawsuits with Empower Our Neighborhoods, or EON, involving petitions of residents’ signatures filed to the city.
“They’re fighting the members of the community they’re supposed to represent,” said Martin Perez, director of Coalition For Democracy, an umbrella group formed last month representing diverse city groups including EON.
Perez characterized the city’s legal battle as “incredible, callous and a waste of taxpayer money.”
Currently, all five of New Brunswick’s council members are elected at-large. The ballot question will ask whether the council should be expanded to nine members, with six elected by ward and three elected at-large. Voters were posed that exact question once before, in 1986, when a local group in New Brunswick put the initiative on the ballot, but voters rejected it, 3,765 to 2,510.
This is a philosophical question where there is no right or wrong answer. Over the long run it makes no difference if a city council is divided by wards or all/some of the members are elected at large. It is believed that by changing from one system to another it will increase the number of citizens running for those positions.
What normally happens is that for the first election cycle or two there is an increase in number of city council candidates. Then the newness wears off and soon the city is back to the same apathetic state it was prior to the change.
Sigh …
This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 3:07 am and is filed under Government Meetings 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “Wards … At Large … Combination?”
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November 12th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
localpolitics101.com is very informative. The article is very professionally written. I enjoy reading localpolitics101.com every day.
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October 19th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
If a municipality is big enough to be divided into wards, is it too big to be a real local government? Should its wards, or wannabe wards, be enabled to become new municipalities — if the voters opt for it?