Kudos to Iola City Council members for their interest during Monday evening’s meeting in more citizen participation.
When the public is involved, local government not only works better; it’s also more transparent and trusted by voters. With support for democracy waning in today’s younger generations, that’s nothing to sneeze at.
That said, if the council sincerely seeks more voices, there’s no room for any discussion about reducing the council’s size to five or three members.
Indeed, it’d likely be easier to make decisions with fewer people to convince. But remember our country’s founders, who saw the wisdom in slowing things down after suffering the whims of an impulsive king. Think of the filibuster and the separation of powers, or the cumbersome amendment process. Steady deliberation is part and parcel of good government.
So how best to fix the problem of low participation? Councilmember Jon Wells had an interesting idea. Instead of four wards with two council members, switch it around: create two wards with four representatives in each.
We’d support that. After all, who honestly believes the needs of residents on South Kentucky are that different from those on South Washington? Can a town of just over 5,000 residents with three stoplights really be so hard to know well? Most people cross town several times a day. And if you don’t, the answer is simple: get out more. This Saturday’s citywide garage sale represents a golden opportunity.
The need for wards in Iola may have run its course. (Our local school district got rid of wards years ago.) But for those wary of scrapping the idea altogether, fewer wards still allows for some geographical representation –– while increasing the number of candidates for available seats.
REGARDLESS of the outcome, these conversations are signs of a healthy elective body. Few of us ever dare look in the mirror and ask how we could improve. Most adults are utterly petrified of the idea. Me, change? Why on earth would I need to do that?
And think of how many offices exist in the world where the answer to why something is done a certain way is a shrug of the shoulders and, “Well, we’ve always done it that way.”
Change is difficult to welcome, especially when the thing being changed is yours. But if we hope to have better local government, conversations like the one Monday evening are a wonderful place to start.
— Tim Stauffer
