Minutes 10-05-2021 Virtual Business Meeting

Browse Search

15 representative. She said the breakdown by race, ethnicity, age or voting, may not actually represent the viewpoints of the county, so for her it does not provide the evidence that necessarily supports the conclusions. She said given that the survey was conducted over two weeks in June during COVID, it is understandable why there is a small sample and why it may not be representative. She said there is also a lack of analysis of past elections and election results to demonstrate who is or is not being represented under the current system, under the previous system when there were only five at-large commissioners, etc. She said a historical perspective would help identify the problem that needs to be fixed. She said if the problem is voters not being educated that is something that can be dealt with without having a new system. She said it is nice and important that the viewpoints of the group and experience are brought to the table, but she hopes experience is used to get evidence that is more objective and understanding of the pros and cons of the different voting systems that are out there. She agreed that single district commissioner, might not view the county as a whole, and it is important to get more information about how this works in other counties and around the country. She said she sees the time and effort put into this and the careful deliberations and would think the evidence brought forth to support it could be more robust than what is seen. Chair Price said the report was so thorough and she gave kudos to the group and staff for their work. She said she holds a district 2 seat and, in one sense, the general election allows people to say "I voted for you" and she knows she is working for the whole county. She said the work of the BOCC has countywide impact so she definitely tries to think of the entire county. She said she has special passion for District 2 and acknowledged that Chapel Hill and Carrboro have town councils to represent them, but many parts of District 2 do not. She said she also gets calls from District 1 residents and helps all the same. She said her concern with single districts, and no at-large seats, is the possibility that Commissioners would feel they only represent their specific district, rather than the entire county. She thanked the group for attempting outreach and getting community input. She said it is often hard to get the community to take a survey. She said she is uncertain about it right now, because she wants to avoid the domination of one area over others. Commissioner Fowler asked which rubric would represent the possibility of the current system, minus the at-large positions. Dr. Hazirjian said the county currently has blended districts with at-large on top of that. She said there are only two counties in the State with a combination of at-large and multi- member districts. She said it is very unusual. Commissioner Fowler said it looked like there were others that had both districts and at- large. Chair Price said Orange County is different in having voting in the district for the primary and everyone votes in the general elections. Commissioner Fowler said since she is an at-large representative, she agrees that at- large positions may benefit Chapel Hill-Carrboro area over the rest of the county, although in past elections folks from District 2 have won that seat. She said she can see how getting rid of that might make things more equitable geographically. She said her concern is how different is one side of Chapel Hill is from another. She said if Chapel Hill and Carrboro were split up into some sort of pie, it could make it even worse for the county in terms of equity. She said, as an at-large candidate, she did have to campaign across the entire county and get to know people she was representing across the county. Dr. Hazirjian said the concern about the pie option, is why the group said to keep communities of interest together and avoid splitting precincts. She said she is not sure how the map would be most equitable. She said in terms of population there would likely be four districts carved out of something close to district 1 and three out of something close to District 2. She said it would not guarantee more representation for District 2.