Expand the number of city councilors?

BRISTOL – At least two Democratic city councilors support expanding the size of the City Council, a move that would trigger automatic representation for the minority party in town.
Incumbent Democrats Craig Minor and Kevin McCauley, each of whom are running for reelection, said they would back the creation of a nine-member council, which would automatically set aside at least three seats for candidates who don’t hail from the party that wins a majority at the polls.
In every election since 1991, that would almost certainly have given Republicans more clout on the council than they’ve been able to win for themselves. Not surprisingly, most or perhaps all of the people on the GOP’s ticket back the idea.
Not every candidate supports the idea, however.
Former Mayor Frank Nicastro, who is currently a city councilor, said he would “absolutely not” want to see the council increased in size.
“It functions well as a six member unit,” Nicastro said, and would “bog down” if there were more members.
Each council member on a six person panel “is more than capable of handling the job. If you’re going to be a councilman, be a councilman. Do the job,” Nicastro said.
Bob Merrick, a Republican council contender in the 3rd District, said that expanding the size of the council to ensure minority representation “would be an important component in providing diversity in thought and perspective more representative of the views of the general population.”
The Board of Education, which has nine members, already has a minority representation requirement. In practice, all six Democratic school board candidates have won in every election since the creation an elected school board, with the top three Republican vote-getters joining them on the panel.
Joseph Geladino, a GOP council hopeful in the 2nd District, said that expanding the council to nine members make sense.
But he suggested that instead of electing three people in each of Bristol’s three council districts, the additional three should be picked at-large instead of representing a particular district.
It’s not clear, though, how a system such as the one described by Geladino would determine which three candidates should be required to hail from a minority party or from the ranks of independent voters.
Tom Ragaini, a former Democratic councilor who is running as an independent in the 2nd District, said that he’s against expanding the size of the council.
Ragaini said that the proposal has come before earlier charter revision commissions and never won enough support to reach the council, let alone the voters.
He said the existing system allows voters to replace councilors they’re unhappy with every two years. That’s worked well enough, Ragaini said.
Another hitch is that with a nine member council, it’s not obvious whether the mayor should continue to vote on every issue, as he does now. With an odd number of councilors, the mayor’s vote could create a tie rather than break one.
City Councilor Art Ward, who is running for mayor as a Democratic challenger, said he has “no problem with the way” the city government is currently set up.
He said, though, that if the council’s size were to increase, “I would still advocate that the mayor maintain the present participation level in order to be fully involved in the process.”
Nicastro said mayors should have to vote on every issue and not get the chance to dodge tough calls.
Merrick said that because nine “doesn’t divide evenly” leaving out the mayor “would make sense. His vote would only come into play in an abstention or absence.”
“Having the mayor serve only a tie-breaking function would work much better than our current system,” Geladino said.
Minor said he would leave the details of the change, including the mayor’s role, to the charter revision panel to work out.
Every major mayor and council candidate was given the chance to respond to the issue. Some did not answer. Others said they preferred not to comment.

Cockayne calls for big change
What Bristol needs is a city manager and longer terms in office for mayors and city councilors, said Republican city Council hopeful Ken Cockayne.
“The current form of government that we have in place is not as effective as it should be. For a city of our size, our mayor and council are spread too thin,” Cockayne said.
He said that switching to a city manager form of government, as a number of other candidates also advocate, would work better.
With a manager at the helm, Cockayne said, “Elected officials continue to develop policy that is responsive to citizens’ needs” while the manager carries out the policies in a bipartisan way.
Cockayne said that councilors and mayors should serve four-year terms, with staggered terms to “allow for more consistency.”
“Too often, politicians in Bristol are more concerned with securing their own position then making decisions that put Bristol first,” Cockayne said.
“Four year terms would allow for leaders to spend more time focusing on their jobs instead of reelection,” he said.
Cockayne is one of six candidates vying for two council seats in the 2nd District. The other contenders are incumbent Democrat Kevin McCauley, Democrat Bruce Lydem, Republican Joe Geladino, and independents Tom Ragaini and Mark Blaschke.


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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com