Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Guest article by Councilmember Chris Bortz

The current “at large” or 9X system really just means that every member of Council represents the entire city.  Some, including Mr. Berding, have suggested that it would be better to have a number of districts or a combination of at large and districts.  I am opposed to districts, but would support a system where each seat is identified and voted on individually.  So, I might run for seat #7 against that specific incumbent.  Such a system creates more direct voter accountability, but avoids the potential for district to district horse trading at the expense of the big picture.

The voting mechanism does not deal with how Council represents the city.  Strictly speaking, PR as a voting system works for any Council arrangement, and could also work for the Mayor’s election.  IRV, Choice Voting, and PR all just refer to the voter’s ability to rank candidates in order of preference, regardless of the number of people they can vote for a particular office. 

Charter’s official position is to retain the current representation system so that every member of Council represents the whole city (in theory) not just one neighborhood or district, and that PR is the appropriate voting mechanism to elect Council.

Some might argue that various members of Council over the years have been more focused on one neighborhood over another.  Can you imagine the kinds of negotiations that would ensue if members were elected by one neighborhood or a cluster of neighborhoods?  Might make it very difficult for Council to consider the entire city as policy and priorities are set.

The other question on the table under Mr. Berding’s motion is the power of the Mayor and the City Manager.  Currently, the Manager is the CEO and CAO of the city.  The Mayor has no executive authority.  That is, the Mayor can’t hire or fire directors or anyone on the city payroll except his own staff.  I don’t think the time is right for us to eliminate the Professional Manager/Council form of government.  The most recent changes to the Mayor’s authority have only been in place for a few years.  I think the system is working much better than in the past.  The Mayor has more power over Council, but the city administration is still relatively insulated from politics.  I think it best to leave things as they are on that front for now.

Charter was founded on the Manager/Council form of government, so I imagine it would take some very compelling arguments to get Charter to abandon that form in favor of an Executive Mayor system.

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