Agenda - 05-05-2005-1b - Laserfiche WebLink

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67 Before the County Commission of Orange County Public hearing on Commission Electoral Districting 28 September 1492 TESTIMONY OF I.IGIITNING A. DROWN This has not been an easy issue to open for discussion, particularly in this electoral season for some of you. Discussions of syslematfe electoral change are never easy for those ultimately charged with decision of such matters, since you decisionmakers are, in the short nun, frequently the grcatost and most immediate beneficiaries of the system to be reformed, and thus forced to decide in conflict with your own personal interesls, And so I think it is important to thank you for this opportunity to discuss openly and meaningfully a ouustion so fundruncntel to the potiticat constitution of our oounty. I believe that your willingness to entertain this question now indicates your determinaiion not to solve it in the short run only. You know that fair representation of all Orange county citivens is and will be an electoral issue this year, and therefore that our discussions this evening will have long -terra Implications. I commend ytru all for not shying away from them. Get me also commend and personally thank candidate MA Marcoptrulos for succeeding after years of similar, failed efforts by other citiz=% including myself, to bring this issue to discussion. I believe that the success of Mark's campaign, at least in this ore respect, represents a significant contribution to progressive county government, for which all of us owe a debt of thanks. But as I express my appreciation, I feel I must also express some disappointment, in that the framing of the question of fair rcpresemalion as stated on your agenda this evening, is limited, by intention or inadvertence, to the issue of cleworal districts. I believe that electoral reform is urgently needed in Change, bui I am also firmly convinced that the district proposals which have been ropoatcdly rejected over the last 25 years wero rightly rejected be-mww they would promote neither the best quality of reptesentation nor the unity of our county. Therefore, I challenge you nil, should you decide once more that districts are not the way for Orange county to go, not to stop thee. Go on to look at other atternativm which can enhance our local dcmoaatic values without sacrificing the quality of government or the unity of our populace. My testimony tonight concerns some of theso alternatives. I ask you to hear it as a critique of the district plans and as an urgent plea for eorrrc'.iring better. We have been froquently reminded in this election you that nearly 72 °10 of tegistemd Orange voters are residents of Chapel Hill township, and that without some change, the residents of the other five townships cannot be assured of inclusion in determinations affecting their families, their dignity, and their livelihoods. In its simplest teems, this long- repeated complaint by rural residents asscrts, first, that a bloc representing most of our county's native -bom population and owning a substantial portion of the jurisdiction's land deserves de facto to be directly represented on the Gutty Commission, and second, that a bloc comprising 28% of the electorate cannot be assured of mprescrnation when the smallest majorities to win elections for a five - member board are 50% when two seats become vacant in presidential years like this one, and 33% when throe scats are open in off- Years, Some of you question this olaim, citing the unreliabilitY of voter rolls as counts of actual voters and predictors of voting strength. Others of you question whethOr a minority which can, with a little luck, elect its candidates in every second Election by gaining the support of an addition! 5% of the electorate is actually in such desperate straits that fairness should require a change in the rules But to those of you who believe the argument thus settled, I submit two additional sets of facts. first Is the duration and the degree of subjective frustration and alienation expressed by many of those testifying tonight: these people feel that county government is skewed against them, text that repmsentation is the key to improvement. i These subjective frustrations are potitir4l facts, engendering distrust and resentment around scorns of 10, issues ao0 chronically impeding ra:ionzl considered decisiorun<idng. On the positive side is the expcctation of these citizens that greater participation Will increase their trust in gwcmrnontal process and in the quality of decisionmakir g- a philosophy so fundamentally American that it deserves, in any case, the benefit of the doubt; trot I also believe that this philosophy is prociscly correct as applied to tonight's question. I will return 10 this point.