Portsmouth Villagers Community Association - Favours District Elections in Kingston

[posting]

Evaluating How City Councilors Are Elected

On July 14, a motion will be introduced at city council that could produce profound changes in the way Councilors are elected in Kingston. The Portsmouth Villagers Community Association executive urges residents to carefully consider this initiative.

Under the current system, Councilors are elected to represent a particular District. In addition, as members of City Council, they are explicitly charged with the responsibility for attending to the interests of the entire city.

In the proposed At-Large system, City Councilors would be elected from a list of candidates who would seek electoral support from across the entire city. Their responsibility would be to the city as a whole and ways of addressing “neighbourhood” issues are not apparent.

Proponents of the two electoral systems are asserting many claims and counter claims about the advantages and disadvantages of each system. It would be prudent for municipal electors to challenge and evaluate these claims.

The PVCA executive believes that the existing District system is better suited to meet the needs of municipal government in Kingston. The full executive came to this unanimous decision after meeting to review the two electoral systems.

Without holding a general meeting on the issue, the executive cannot claim to represent the opinion of the PVCA membership and a meeting is not feasible. Thus in writing the Mayor and councilors to advise them of our support for retaining the District system of electing councilors, we have made clear that this opinion represents that of the executive.

We urge all residents who have opinions, questions or concerns about the issue to take time to make their views known. Councilor Gerretsen can be reached at mgerretesen@cityofkingston.ca or 613-542-5748. The motion will be moved by Councilor Foster (lfoster@cityofkingston.ca 613-546-4984) and seconded by Councilor Smith (esmith@cityofkingston.ca 613-546-4291 ext 1517).

Since this is a City wide issue we suggest you send your views to all members of Council They can be contacted at:

Mayor Rosen
hrosen@cityofkingston.ca
613-546-4291 ext 1400

Councilor Glover
bglover@cityofkingston.ca
613-549-1900

Councilor Hector
dhector@cityofkingston.ca
613-634-1732

Councilor MacLeod
jmacleod-kane@cityofkingston.ca
613-546-9836

Councilor Osanic
losanic@cityofkingston.ca
613-389-7336

Councilor Hutchison
rhutchison@cityofkingston.ca
613-544-3515

Councilor Matheson
rmatheson@cityofkingston.ca
613-384-7717

Councilor Garrison
sgarrison@cityofkingston.ca
613-546-2450

Councilor Meers
smeers@cityofkingston.ca
613-546-4188

Councilor Schmolka
vschmolka@cityofkingston.ca
613-549-1707

Please feel free to contact members of the PVCA executive if you wish to do so.

Yours truly,


Portsmouth Villagers Community Association Executive


Jim Cannon

Suzanne Hamilton

Bob Brooks

Liz Schell

Donna Gallagher

Nancy Mucklow

David Grier

Steve Watts

[Florence]

and none but Rosen would be elected under a city-wide vote.

[Florence]

It occurs to me that some would think that as current council supporters of ward elections would not be elected under city-wide votes, might be a good thing. I don't personally, as I see the list above to be so varied that city-wide elections could never achieve this variety in views. It might be difficult at times but that doesn't make it bad.