Editorial: At-large council districts best for all on The Murfreesboro Post

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Editorial: At-large council districts best for all

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Posted: Sunday, July 5, 2009 8:13 am

Possibly because Murfreesboro elections are next year, or possibly because of the controversial issue of guns in parks, a few folks are again bandying about the idea of councilmanic districts for our city.

At casual glance the idea sounds good. After all, we elect most of our other governmental policy bodies in such a fashion.

But careful consideration invariably leads to the conclusion that the at-large election process we use for Murfreesboro City Council best serves the interest of all of us and has for all these years.

The council is a small enough body that any citizen in Murfreesboro can quite literally call all of them in an evening, and because this city has been blessed with such a high quality of representation each of those calls would probably result in a reasonable hearing of the complaint or issue.

All seven members effectively represent each citizen of Murfreesboro and all seven are accountable to all citizens.

That should be the case with district representation, but in fact, in practice and in principle, it would not be the case.

We see examples regularly of that in the news from Metro-Nashville and in the state legislature for six or seven months a year.

A district representative is afforded and commonly claims the rights to represent the constituents of that district and political courtesy invariably plays a powerful role in recognizing that political delineation.

District representation sounds like a good idea, sounds democratic and sounds more likely to represent individual viewpoints better, but in fact tend to work the other way.

A constituent in a particular district who does not agree with that district’s representative is pretty much left without a voice because other representatives on most matters must listen to their own district’s voters. Otherwise, what is the point in districts?

Such a system, by its nature and definition, leads to divisiveness, establishment of fiefdoms and political deals. District reps have to represent their districts as best possible and often that means trading favors for favors and votes for votes.

It is endemic to the process and unavoidable.

On the other hand, at-large representation makes each and every council member accountable to every citizen.

While certainly many factors are at play and while certainly Murfreesboro’s leadership can do better in some areas, the fact is that the city’s governance is the best we have.

Consider our various governmental agencies. Which is more effective in delivering services, more progressive, more award winning, more financially stable.

Cutting to the chase: Which is the last to raise our taxes?

Consider: How much better would our Congress be, how much more effective government spending, if all of us voted on all of them.

How about in the state legislature?

Even the County Commission at times has to work through contentious issues involving district conflicts.

Murfreesboro’s current election method is a winning setup. We should look at changing it when it doesn’t work.

That is not the case and we should not sacrifice the superb quality of government we receive from the city of Murfreesboro because of a few unhappy citizens, of which we will always have some and probably each will fall into that category at some time, or to chase some hypothetical but debatable concept that doesn’t work as well.

Tagged under City, Voices

Member Opinions:

By: Curious on 7/5/09
"But careful consideration invariably leads to the conclusion that the at-large election process we use for Murfreesboro City Council best serves the interest of all of us and has for all these years."

Interesting statement. There may be more points to discuss than those stated here. It would be interesting to hear from communities that have switched from at-large to district as to whether they feel they've made the right decision or not.