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EMIL
FRANZI |
Let's get back to real representationJune 27, 2007 |
City councils that behave
like potted plants. Boards of supervisors who’ve
become boards of onlookers. County line officers and
state elected officials who dare not object to
whatever some lawyer or bureaucrat told them to do.
Not exactly what DeTocqueville had in mind. How did
America get to this gradual dismemberment of
representative government and its replacement with
government by the unelected?
It was a gradual process advanced on many fronts. It’s accelerated and is making genuine representative government a thing of the past, a trend that must be reversed. Forget the conventional cliche reforms. Higher pay just gets you bigger slugs — check Chicago aldermen and the California Legislature. Successful business people who think they can run government their way can’t and fail trying. Giving office holders there own staff often leads to them making book with the bureaucracy on their own. We need radical reform. Return to how we used to do it. Greatly increase the size of all legislative bodies: City councils and state legislatures were far larger in the 18th and 19th centuries. Boston had a hundred member council elected by ward until 1899. New Hampshire and Vermont still have large state legislatures — over 400 and 200 members respectively. Congress added new members as our population grew. “Good government” policy wonks convinced other elites that large size made legislatures “unmanageable.” They never explained who was supposed to “manage” them. The real problem was many places were electing too many people with things like “mc” in their name. Massive increases in population leaving the number of representatives static makes gauging what constituents want more difficult. Larger bodies would reverse that, diversify the talent pool and increase institutional knowledge beyond that held by the staff. It would also greatly diminish the need for campaign cash by reducing the demand for it. Arizona’s 60-member lower house with two reps in each district should convert to at least 180 with single members. The Board of Supes should grow to 30 and the OV and Marana councils to at least 15 with further increases mandated for population growth. All should be elected by district. Make more offices elected: Arizona eliminated too many elected officials. Reinstate the position of auditor, an elected State Tax Commission, and mandate that local cities and towns elect their clerk and attorney along with restoring city assessors and treasurers. Counties should elect a CEO. Abolish term limits and make terms shorter: We got higher turnouts when town elections were held annually. Our state and county officials had two year terms until 1970. Longer terms have spawned recalls and referendums and the term limit movement. More frequent elections would eliminate the need for most recalls. Make all elections partisan: The void created in many places by the elimination of political parties has been filled by special interests including the worst one of all - the lifer bureaucracy. Bring the parties back and someone will have responsibility of running candidates and setting competing agendas. The parties will probably need retraining for this. Abolish initiative and referendum for larger jurisdictions: Like term limits these are cop-outs and shortcuts for failure to find enough candidates. With today’s large populations they’re the tool of well financed special interests not something used by the folks as intended. Dump open meeting laws and unelected reapportionment committees: Open-meeting laws have converted private discussions and public decisions into private decisions without any discussions and empowered more unelected lawyers. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both produced behind closed doors. “Independent” reapportionment committees usually aren’t. Stay with good old-fashioned gerrymanders. Legislators are craven enough as is — give some the security of a safe district if you want any real product. Besides, gerrymanders aren’t that effective or they’d still be some Whigs. Those actually believing that people are fit to rule themselves will endorse most of the above. |
BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! |
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