And Austin, along with many other Texas cities were taken to court under the
Voters Rights Act, because their municipal elections systems were considered
purposely racist with all at-large city councils that kept white people in
power despite the almost even population split of whites and people of color
in nearly all of them.
The cities lost that battle and were forced to establish some form of
district representation.
Minneapolis would be better served - as would all cities of any diversity
whatsoever - by a system of multiple representatives from somewhat larger
wards elected proportionally with a few at-large seats to balance the
natural parochialism and log-rolling and vote-trading that all
single-representative ward systems create and cannot avoid.
A city the size of Minneapolis could easily handle 15 city councilmembers,
with 12 councilmembers elected from six larger wards of two councilmembers
each plus three elected at-large.
This configuration would provide each voter with a chance to both vote for
and run for any one of five seats of the Council's 15, no matter where they
live, enjoying the opportunity to contact and influence more than one member
as they do now and be more content knowing that at least two of them are
voting their district's interests and another three are looking after the
city's interests as a whole, providing an important balance of perspectives
on city governance.
While we're on the subject, the City Council's mix of administrative and
legislative roles - which now and always clash with those of the Mayor -
should be dropped, either by creating a Strong-Mayor form, separating
legislative from administrative powers and responsibilities or by making the
mayor one of the at-large councilmembers, sitting as the Council president
with expanded duties, but increasing the role of the City Coordinator to
that of a City Manager with the power to appoint department heads with the
advice and consent of the Council.
This is, of course a more idealistic view than would be politically possible
unless a serious coalition was formed to study, conceive and place a charter
amendment initiative before the voters to change the structure of city
governance to something resembling most other cities in the country.
Andy Driscoll
Saint Paul
What does it matter to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the
mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy
name of liberty or democracy? Mahatma Ghandi
>
> Victoria Heller posts: Our sister city, Austin, Texas, has a population of
> 685,000 and only 7 City Council Members. Since we insist that everything in
> Minneapolis be "proportionate" - we only need 3, plus the Mayor.
>
> Brandt: Or one could look on the bright side and consider that
> Minneapolis used to have two council members for each ward. So the
> halving of representation that Victoria Heller seeks already has been
> accomplished. There were some advantages to the old system. If one
> alderman was indicted and convicted, as happened frequently in the
> bribery scandals of the late 1920s, the ward wasn't left without
> representation, except then-Third Ward (mostly today's Fifth) where both
> aldermen were convicted.
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