Thursday, July 30, 2009

Windsor City Council will Try Again

Members of Windsor City Council have indicated they will try again to establish a new electoral ward system in time for next year's vote.

The Council members embarrassed themselves while discussing a consultant's report which they themselves commissioned. Read my post of July 13 and my post of July 14, 2009. It was reported some 2 weeks ago that Council members spent three hours debating and voted down at least ten different motions before they finally gave up--with the current system intact, of course.

While Council allocated $50,000 for the report, I understand that only $20,000 was spent.Whether the report cost $20,000 or 20 cents should make no difference. The issue before Council is one of an outdated ward system. The current 5 wards, 2 Council members per ward system has significant population imbalance. But more importantly, the size of Council is too big. And it looks like some Council members are leaning towards a new, 10 ward system with one Council member per ward.

Given the fallout from the just ended 15 week strike involving nearly 1800 city workers, and the need for smaller, more effective, and more affordable government, to maintain the status quo with council numbers should not be an option.

Yesterday, I called the Mayor's office in Edmonton, Alberta and had a very helpful conversation with one of the staff members. The reason I called Edmonton is that I had heard that they, too, were changing their ward system. I was told that last week Edmonton City Council approved a new, 12 ward system with one council member per ward.

I was also told the City of Edmonton has a population of around 780,000. OK: 780,000 divided by 12 equals 65,000 residents per ward. Let's assume Windsor has 220,000 residents. If you divide this by 10, you get 22,000 residents per ward.

And oh, by the way, in Alberta, members of municipal councils are elected for three-year terms and not the four-year terms we have here in Ontario.

It would be unreasonable for Windsor City Council to move forward with a new ward system, which includes 10 wards and one Council member per ward. What is reasonable for the current time and circumstances in the City of Windsor is 6 wards, with one council member per ward.

Each Council member would represent approximately 36,000 residents--a far cry from the 65,000 residents represented by Edmonton City Council members.