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The Charter Commission has stated that they were open minded and deliberated long and hard and took public input on their decisions. Article 2 co-lead Rhanna Kidwell, in her opening remarks at the Charter Commission hearing on March 29th 2017 (minutes, full audio), indicated that might not have been the case for their decision to eliminate Ward Councilors by moving to 100% city wide voting. "I'll begin by saying that I think we had unanimous agreement on this council from day 1 that we all thought the entire city council should be elected at large. That is not something we had a lot of trouble coming to agreement on". April 13th, 2016 was DAY 1 of discussions on council composition (minutes). Commissioners agreed 100% (without need for debate) on eliminating Ward Councilors and direct-elected ward representation in their initial statements and never put them back on the table.
3 Comments
Kathleen Kouril Grieser
5/13/2017 04:35:00 pm
This is conclusive and damning evidence that the charter commissioners came into the process determined to eliminate ward-elected councilors and the ability of the residents of each ward to determine by themselves who they want to represent them on the City Council. Eliminating ward-elected councilors is an anti-democratic move, aimed at concentrating power in fewer, wealthier hands. It is an outrage. Vote NO to this attempted power grab.
Elaine Rush Arruda
5/30/2017 02:15:20 pm
This evidence makes me question the entire Charter Commission election and process. If they really had researched and listened to public comments, they would have realized that other cities are being sued for the anti-democratic practice of all at-large city council elections. What a waste of time and taxpayer money for this debacle! Let's make sure voters are aware of this and vote NO! Leave a Reply. |
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Mailing AddressNewton Citizens for Local Representation
PO Box 600540 Newton, MA 02460 |
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