Longer Terms: What Do You Think?
Dec 20, 2007 10:17 - 2 Comments
There was more than >fireworks during the Citizens’ Forum portion of the last Mayor and Council meeting. There were some interesting proposals put forward, too.
One in particular stands out and I would like to highlight it.
Former City Council candidate Brigitta Mullican spoke, asking (among other things) for a few answers about the difficulties that beset the most recent election. Council Member Anne Robbins responded, and said that she does indeed have a point and deserves answers.
Council Member Robbins went on to describe how “big-time” politics has entered the hitherto-quiet election campaigns of Our Fair City: more money; outside interest groups; PACs; negative campaigning; and more. She described a symptom that has befallen many a growing city: the institution of the Permament Campaign (though she did not use those words). In such a politicized atmosphere, no sooner does someone take office than they must begin running for the next election.
Robbins raised the possibility of going to four-year, staggered terms (so that every year, citizens would be voting for a portion of the full Mayor and Council).
I have been thinking about some of these things myself, just from an observer’s standpoint. It does feel as if “big-time” politics is increasingly a part of Rockville’s scene. This is not necessarily a criticism, as one could well say that the reason politics is changing is that the stakes are increasing in their importance.
I think the specific idea of lengthening terms has much merit. I am aware that this and other issues have been brought up and discussed by the Charter Review Commission, which issued its recommendations in 2003.
Since I was only freshly settled in Rockville at that time, it is not engraved in my memory — after a question, one of my favorite City staffers, Clerk Claire Funkhouser, reminded me that a four-year term was placed on the ballot and failed. A shame, in my view, but I know there are good arguments on both sides. And there are a lot of other good ideas for changes, too.
What about you? Do you see things changing? Without necessarily pining for the past, what can we do moving forward to make sure politics really works for all Rockville citizens, and results in the governance we need?
What do you think?
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What was our most recent voter turnout – @20%? That says something in and of itself I think. And what was one of the first things that the new city council did? Revoke the silly trash decision from the last term.>
Sorry, but if all a small minority of us are doing is bringing in new children to play nice every so often, I think we better stay with short terms of office — to get rid of those that don’t want to “play nice” and revoke decisions that we’d all like to see laid to rest once and for all. As for trash pickup, I really don’t care one way or another & can’t believe it’s so important to a few people. Maybe there are PACs or some other interest groups exerting influence on subjects like that, but until more than a handful of our citizens vote, does it really matter?
Longer terms are an incumbents’ protection plan. They would insulate incumbents even more from the will of the people, and do nothing to attract additional citizens to vote. The extremely high re-election rates of incumbents shows they already have enough protection from popular opinion.>
Staggered terms are another bad idea. Their impact would be to reduce the ability of citizens to influence decisions by the Mayor and Council. This would further decrease citizens’ interest in elections.
If we want to increase voting, let’s talk about ways to make it easier to vote. How about changing election day from Tuesday to Saturday? Maybe two consecutive Saturdays. Let’s explore internet voting. If the internet is safe enough for us to use to do our banking, surely we can use it to vote. Let’s synch our election up with the national elections.
Maybe the candidates need to rethink how they run for office. Once-weekly trash service was a big issue for Hungerford residents, but how many candidates knocked on every door in Hungerford? Except for Carl Henn, probably none. Instead, candidates target about 6,000 – 9,000 “likely voters.” No wonder turnout is about 20%.
Another way to create some interest might be for candidates with similar positions on issues to run as a team. It would allow voters to think in terms of this Council vs that Council, and the candidates would achieve economies in their get-out-the-vote efforts.
The really appalling things about the recent race for Mayor were the extreme distortions of Hoffmann’s record and the negative attacks by one candidate using these distortions. Most of us want nothing to do with negativity and dirty politics. We need to punish candidates who want to run smear campaigns by speaking out against their tactics during the campaign and by not voting for them. Voters did the latter in a big way, but sadly, I heard very few community leaders speak out during the race. Mark Pierzchala was a notable exception, adding to my already high respect for him.
Art Stigile
312 W Edmonston Dr