MONROE - Two meetings are set for this week to gauge public input on the future of city alderman elections.
The Judiciary and Ordinance Review Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday, and the Common Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The meetings are at city hall, and possible action could be taken at both meetings.
A proposal to change the election of city aldermen to an at-large system failed on a 5 to 4 vote July 5 at the Monroe Common Council. But some form of it could come up again, along with other alternatives.
The charter ordinance for the at-large plan needed a two-thirds vote to pass. Alderman Reid Stangel was absent.
The defeat came after a public hearing, during which six citizens spoke in opposition to the ordinance, and one spoke in favor.
City Administrator Phil Rath has supplied aldermen with a list of pros and cons of an at-large system and a district (ward) system, in preparation for the upcoming meetings.
That list entitled "District Elections vs. At-large Elections Pros and Cons" can be found in many places on the Internet - one is Google Docs.
The document lists the ideas in categories, including philosophy, accountability, geographical and racial fairness, and campaigning.
Some of the ideas in the document were touched upon by at-large opponents at the council meeting last week. Those who spoke said they wanted aldermen who had interest in and close knowledge of their neighborhoods; direct contact with and accountability from their aldermen; representation spread evenly around the city; protection from socio-economic clustering of candidates; and elections not swayed by large campaign spending - all of which they believed would be solved best by ward elections.
One person who spoke in favor of the switch to at-large elections, Ron Marsh, said the redistricting, because of new census data, creates gaps in voting rights among many people in 2012, if ward elections are kept.
The gaps come from reducing the city from ten to nine wards, which required shifting of boundaries.
Because only half of Monroe's wards, odd numbered and even numbered wards, elected aldermen every year, some people in 2012 will miss an election if their new ward is numbered differently, for example, from an odd to a even number. Likewise, some voters will go to the polls twice in two years.
The redistricting boundaries and the election gap leave many people without representation, according to Marsh.
At-large elections would allow everyone in the city to vote for five positions in 2012.
The pros-and-cons document states that elected members are "more likely to have the interest of the entire city ... at heart."
Alderman Chris Beer and others have noted that once elected, ward alderman do take into consideration what issues benefit the city as a whole.
At-large elections are said to increase the chances that a voter will vote for a winning candidate and feel more represented on the board.
The list of pros and cons also claims "as a general matter, women and African American candidates fare better in district elections."
The document supplied to the aldermen for consideration is not dated, but claims to be derived from a document by Michael Crowell, an attorney with the firm Tharrington Smith in Raleigh, N.C.
The Judiciary and Ordinance Review Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday, and the Common Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The meetings are at city hall, and possible action could be taken at both meetings.
A proposal to change the election of city aldermen to an at-large system failed on a 5 to 4 vote July 5 at the Monroe Common Council. But some form of it could come up again, along with other alternatives.
The charter ordinance for the at-large plan needed a two-thirds vote to pass. Alderman Reid Stangel was absent.
The defeat came after a public hearing, during which six citizens spoke in opposition to the ordinance, and one spoke in favor.
City Administrator Phil Rath has supplied aldermen with a list of pros and cons of an at-large system and a district (ward) system, in preparation for the upcoming meetings.
That list entitled "District Elections vs. At-large Elections Pros and Cons" can be found in many places on the Internet - one is Google Docs.
The document lists the ideas in categories, including philosophy, accountability, geographical and racial fairness, and campaigning.
Some of the ideas in the document were touched upon by at-large opponents at the council meeting last week. Those who spoke said they wanted aldermen who had interest in and close knowledge of their neighborhoods; direct contact with and accountability from their aldermen; representation spread evenly around the city; protection from socio-economic clustering of candidates; and elections not swayed by large campaign spending - all of which they believed would be solved best by ward elections.
One person who spoke in favor of the switch to at-large elections, Ron Marsh, said the redistricting, because of new census data, creates gaps in voting rights among many people in 2012, if ward elections are kept.
The gaps come from reducing the city from ten to nine wards, which required shifting of boundaries.
Because only half of Monroe's wards, odd numbered and even numbered wards, elected aldermen every year, some people in 2012 will miss an election if their new ward is numbered differently, for example, from an odd to a even number. Likewise, some voters will go to the polls twice in two years.
The redistricting boundaries and the election gap leave many people without representation, according to Marsh.
At-large elections would allow everyone in the city to vote for five positions in 2012.
The pros-and-cons document states that elected members are "more likely to have the interest of the entire city ... at heart."
Alderman Chris Beer and others have noted that once elected, ward alderman do take into consideration what issues benefit the city as a whole.
At-large elections are said to increase the chances that a voter will vote for a winning candidate and feel more represented on the board.
The list of pros and cons also claims "as a general matter, women and African American candidates fare better in district elections."
The document supplied to the aldermen for consideration is not dated, but claims to be derived from a document by Michael Crowell, an attorney with the firm Tharrington Smith in Raleigh, N.C.