Much has been written lately about the current County Council redistricting. Some have suggested adding two at-large members to the Council, as Montgomery County has, who would be elected countywide.
At the same time, there are growing concerns that our school board elections are not always yielding the best candidates. The current countywide system of electing school board members have brought some...shall we say, interesting... characters to the board lately. And while we shouldn't change the entire system because once in a while an election puts someone on the board who winds up being possibly a pain in the neck or a jerk (thanks, Brian Meshkin!) we should be aware of the need to elect the best and the brightest. We also need to be aware of the fact that various areas of the county are represented on the board.
So here's what I think we should do. And I advocate the charter amendments, legislation, etc. needed to make this happen.
We should divide the county into seven districts of about 40,000 people each. The rough geographic boundaries of the districts could be:
Oakland Mills, Long Reach, Kings Contrivance, Owen Brown
Hickory Ridge, Wilde Lake, Dorsey's Search, Town Center
Harper's Choice, River Hill, Clarksville
Savage/North Laurel/Jessup/Hanover
Elkridge and eastern Ellicott City
western Ellicott City tthrough West Friendship and Lisbon (following I-70)
Highland and all other parts west (Dayton, Glenwood, Cattail Creek area, etc.)
Go ahead and assail me on these boundaries. I'm going off of geographic commonalities here. And all of these loose boundaries do create some socioeconomic diversity, with the possible exception of the two west county districts.
These districts become the Councilmanic districts, as well as School Board election districts.
Keep the staggered elections for School Board Districts. Elect four in one election cycle (Presidential or Gubernatorial) and three in the other for six year terms, not four. Keep the Council election cycles as is.
Keep the three term limit for Council members and limit School Board members to two terms. So twelve years of total service for either office.
This would be the theoretical sequence of elections: dates used for convenience:
2012: elect Board in Districts 1,2,3
2014: elect Board in Districts 4,5; elect all Council members
2016: elect Board in Districts 6,7
2018: elect Board in Districts 1,2,3; elect all Council
2020: elect Board in Districts 4,5
2022: elect Boardin Districts 6,7; elect all Council
And then the cycle repeats.
So what the hell have I created?
I've created a system where Council and Board members are directly accountable to their local constituencies.
I've reduced the number of residents per representative from almost 60,000 to about 42,000 or 43,000.
I've created a system where on a rotating schedule, Council and Board members would be elected from the same district at the same time, sometimes. This would allow the debate over the quality of our educational system to constantly develop.
I've probably created a system that everyone who's reading this thinks I've gone completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Or, have I???
Have at it readers! There's gotta be something in this plan you like, or don't like.