Wards or no?

[Russix]

I'm confused how we would vote for council president with a district/ward system.

[R8RBOB]

I'm confused how we would vote for council president with a district/ward system.

Technically Russix, you really don't vote for a council president. You know the council president is picked by being the top vote-getter. I find this to be very flawed because the current setup allowed Monica Conyers to be the president pro-tempore in 2005 and possibly will elevate Charles Pugh to the presidency in 2009.

Council president should be chosen by peer vote. The two most senior councilmembers should be president/ppt based on a vote of seven members. One of the reasons why Conyers butted heads on council was because she was not respected because of the ppt title. To have Pugh as council president with possibly 4 or 5 incumbents returning in January will be a mess.

[EastsideAl]

I live in the city and I'm against a return to the ward system. They were gotten rid of for damn good reason, and a return to them promises a City Council that may look far too much like Board of Ed or our state legislature delegation. District are no panacea for bad voting habits and will create local power bases and political machines, and make bad councilpeople even more difficult or impossible to remove.