First, let me state that I generally agree with the substance of your position. At the end of the day, it's the Mayor that has the most direct control over the day-to-day operations of the city. And given the "strong Mayor" design of Detroit government, the city council generally works as a minor check & balance against Mayoral power.
Howeva...
In a city where the Mayoral/City Council relationship has been historically characterized by total dysfunction and gridlock [[let's not forget the Cobo Hall fiasco)...combined with former councilmembers whose personality styles and psyches were as extreme as their political positions...combined with a distrustful electorate....a council-by-district model does the following:
- forces council members to run "against" someone...rather than relying on city-wide name recognition to show up in the Top 9 rankings. This will result in one-on-one competitions where poorly informed ideas will be tested
- allows an electorate to focus on one electoral contest in their district, rather than forcing the individual voter to evaluate 15-different politicians, and then ranking them in order of desirability [[a tall order even for the most civic minded of us)
- helps build trust between citizens and their elected reps because one rep will focus all of his/her time among a smaller number of people.
Nothing is more frustrating than finding a workable solution to complex problems only to have it bogged down in political procedure. That isn't to say that this solution will force agreement or consensus all the time...hardly. But this way, if someone is just truly incompetent -- and that incompetence is slowing things down -- they will now have to face head-to-head competition for their seat, rather than a diluted electoral process.
So I don't think that the council-by-district idea is meant to make sure that appropriations funnel back to individual districts, I think it's biggest advantage is that when one councilman votes up or votes down a proposal, I know that he/she is answerable only to me and the people in my area.
If, for some reason I disagree with that vote, then I can focus my efforts on persuading the people most likely to live my daily life. Moreover, if I don't agree, at least I know that he/she is answerable to the people who I live and work around, rather than strangers in a neighborhood that is a world apart from where I live.
Palmer Woods does not equal Del Ray does not equal EEV.
In that sense, I think this is a big improvement...though I do agree that, as you say, its powers in any specific sense are very limited.
Bookmarks