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Home My WebLink About11/16/2010 05 Audience ParticipationCity Council Meeting November 16, 2010 Over one (1) year ago I came before you and requested that you, the City Council, update our City Charter dated April 1, 1986 as it was out of date after 23 (now 24 '/z years). At that time I was told that it would be too costly and would require a Special Election. Given the state of our economy, and more importantly, our budget, I agreed with the City Manager and chose to postpone my request to better times. Low and behold, when we are finding ourselves in a deeper financial hole budget wise than we were back then, you, our representatives choose to rush into a Special Election to decide if the voters want a `Strong Mayor' form of government or maintain the current form of government. For me, that is financial irresponsibility. So now what? Will you also be placing on the February ballot an update to our City Charter or do we just forget about it again? Probably not, because I have heard no mention of this over the past months during your deliberations regarding the `Strong Mayor' form of government. Therefore, I respectfully request that this .City Council give a full and complete financial accounting, (to include the cost of the Special Election, the cost of all staff hours spent on this election, and all necessary supplies, etc.) of all expenditures for this Special Election and to let the citizens of our city know how it has affected our 2011 city budget. I also request that this-be done within 30 days of certification of the election, but not more than 4 days. {0o Respectively yours, William (Bill) Duerr 3206 W Yakima Ave Yakima, WA 98902 November 16, 2010 Dear Yakima City Council, Ces,lrlcr / (�.' cfS /nQsS /`'i•�g Central Washington Progress Central Washington Progress is a community -based organization with many clients living in the Yakima City limits. We would like to ask the City Council to consider'adding a Ballot Initiative to the February ballot, if the February ballot goes forward. If there is no February ballot, we would like to ask that the Council con- sider adding this to the November ballot. We propose adding the Ballot Initiative, . Should Yakima City Council Members be elected by members of their own district, out of seven equal and balanced districts within the City? 1. Please consider the Yakima Herald editorial, from November 8, 2010 (District voting would bring council closer to the people) 2. This will not cost the taxpayers any extra money (maybe $1000 more for the counting process) 3. Allow the voters to decide the issue 4. It is a logical and fair way for voters to be directly represented on the Council. • Voters will know who their representative is. • The Council member will actually live in the neighborhood that votes for them, and be able to better serve them. 5. This is an ideal year to decide on council districts because census tract population figures are going to be available. 6. We support a ballot measure on creating seven single- member districts, not a hybrid. Thank you for considering this proposal. Best wishes, /)"h au-7:3 �3 Mary Baechler Central WA Progress 1211 South 7th Street, Yakima, WA 98901 509.961.2792 mary@cwprogress.org Yakima Herald- Republic Online - Printer Friendly From the Yakima Herald - Republic Online News. Posted on Monday, November 08, 2010 District voting would bring council closer to the people Yakima Herald - Republic editorial board http : / /www.yakima- heraid.com/stories /2010/ 11/8 /district- voting -w... This editorial appears in the Nov. 9, 2010, Yakima Herald - Republic. Look at how the city of Yakima chooses its council members and imagine if Washington state picked its legislators the same way. You would have 49 legislative districts statewide, each with one senator and two representatives, or a total of 49 senators and 98 representatives, as is the case now. Each senator and representative must reside in his or her respective district, as is the case now. But imagine if your 13th, 14th or 15th District legislators were subject to a statewide vote. Your legislators would be on the ballot not only here, but on every ballot in the state. They would need to win votes not only here, but also in the Tri- Cities, Spokane, Vancouver, Tacoma and (gasp) Seattle. They would gear their campaigns not toward the Yakima Valley, but toward voting blocs in the vote -rich population centers in other parts of the state. Yakima Valley issues would never get a fair hearing; neither would candidates reflecting Yakima Valley values. Yet that's essentially how Yakima does it for the City Council. All seven council members are elected by all city voters; three hold at -large seats, meaning they can live anywhere in the city. Four council members must live in their respective districts, but even they are elected by voters throughout the city in the general election. While one member must live in District 3, the eastern part of Yakima, that council member has just as much stake in issues where the votes are (the west side of Yakima) as do west -side councilors. So you have a group concerned less with concerns of their neighborhoods and more with issues with which they can corral votes. Last week, we urged the City Council to step back from its rush toward a possible change from the council- manager system to strong -mayor setup. We argued the complexity of. the change warranted more complete study that would require more time. We posed a number of questions, and to those we ask one more: Why not have council members elected only by voters in the districts they represent? This could be a win -win across the political spectrum. It would be a step toward more - responsive government. Currently, all seven councilors have constituencies of 80,000 -plus people. In a four - district system, more than half would respond to the concerns of just over 20,000 residents, on average about 10,000 voters or less. If all seven council members are elected by district -- a thought should a strong -mayor system come to be -- that number drops to about 12,000 residents, or about 5,000 to 6,000 voters. That gets downright cozy. 1 of 2 11/16/10 5:10 PM of 2 Yatama Herald - Republic Online - Printer Friendly /bra, http: / /www.yaki ma -heral d.com/stories /2010/11/8/district-voting-w.. It would allow council members to know many of their constituents by name and would put them closer to those constituents and their individual concerns. It would encourage councilors to get to know their districts, to be in tune and in touch with their neighbors. In addition, a cursory look shows Yakima's council does not reflect its ethnic, economic or political diversity. Though the council is officially nonpartisan, council members' party affiliations are more open than they are secrets, and that subverts the intent of having a nonpartisan muncipal entity. Only the most rabid view filling potholes through a partisan prism, but that is exactly what is happening now, with the council consisting entirely of one ethnic group and almost entirely of those identifying with one wing of the Republican Party. Some Democrats in the past have endorsed district elections, which certainly gives them a better chance to gain seats, though that again misses the point of a nonpartisan council. The point is to open the process past the current party power structure, to represent voters whether they be Democrats, independents or Republicans who don't feel at home with the current party policies. Our current council makeup may speak for a majority or a large plurality citywide, but it does not speak for everybody in every part of the city, just as a state Legislature with each member elected statewide would not speak for residents of the Yakima Valley. Last week, we suggested tying the 2011 council election, either the August primary or November general election, to a possible strong - mayor vote, in essence making the council elections a referendum on changing the form of government. A district -by- district proposal on the same ballot could serve the same function; let's hear what the candidates have to say about the issue and then voters can decide accordingly. We hear a lot of talk about a fair government that's close to the people and responsive to the people, a government that hears the concerns of all points of view and offers a means to air them. Here's an idea that would walk the talk. * Members of the Yakima Herald - Republic editorial board are James E. Stickel, Bob Crider, Frank Purdy and Karen Troianello. 11/16/10 5:10 PM