Post by Scott L » Fri Aug 14, 2015 8:27 am
Let's examine this a little more. Our council is at-large for a population of about 14,000. That means every council member has to do the work to understand the registered voters of 14,000 people and then represent the will of those voters to government. Gastonia has a Ward system where each councilperson has an average of 12,000 people in their territory. So it might surprise you to know that Mount Holly councilpersons have a more challenging job to represent a diverse 16% more people than Gastonia councilpersons.
If our councilpersons cannot represent us people well (enough), perhaps we ought to reduce the difficulty of how they do that so we have closer/better relationships with a single councilperson that serves us. An effective councilperson could easily get to know the wishes and desire of a percentage of registered voters in about 2,300 people.
Let's examine this a little more. Our council is at-large for a population of about 14,000. That means every council member has to do the work to understand the registered voters of 14,000 people and then represent the will of those voters to government. Gastonia has a Ward system where each councilperson has an average of 12,000 people in their territory. So it might surprise you to know that Mount Holly councilpersons have a more challenging job to represent a diverse 16% more people than Gastonia councilpersons.
If our councilpersons cannot represent us people well (enough), perhaps we ought to reduce the difficulty of how they do that so we have closer/better relationships with a single councilperson that serves us. An effective councilperson could easily get to know the wishes and desire of a percentage of registered voters in about 2,300 people.