[Vision2020] County Commissioner Terms and Districts

[Dan Carscallen]

The reason for the 2-year/4-year split is so you will always be voting
for two commissioners.  If memory serves (and it usually doesn't)  Tom
was the two-year man last time around, and this time Tom gets four and
it'll be Jack's turn for two, and in '06, Kimmell will be running for
the two year position.  There are other options (at least some have been
proposed for other "special taxing districts") where you would vote for
one commissioner per year for three years, then you take one year off.
This way each has a 4 year term.  I kind of like the way it is now,
because every time around you have a chance of shaking things up a bit.

Not that anyone on V2020 would want things shook up . . .

As far as your idea for gerrymandering the districts, I say leave that
as it is, because you have to have it population based, and someone from
Potlatch isn't going to want to vote for someone from Deary or Genessee
to represent him/her.

But, I'm not a political scientist.  I just play one on the internet.

DC

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Donovan Arnold
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 8:41 PM
To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] County Commissioner Terms and Districts


One of the things that bothers me about the Idaho County Commissioner 
Election and Districts is that they are about as confusing as you can
get 
for the general public.

For starters the Commission seats are for four years, then two years,
then 
four years then two years. This gets confusing. You cannot remember who
is 
up for election at what time.

Second, the districts are drawn with no common interests. The county is
cut 
up like a pie. With each district being about 1/3 Moscow and 2/3 County.
So 
nobody can really identify what district they are in.

What I think should be done is that we elect one County Commissioner
during 
the General Presidential Election and the other two during the Idaho 
Governor Election. This way people can keep tract of who is up for
election.

For Districts, I think they should be drawn up on the basis of
geographical 
interests. For example, if the City of Moscow has 66% of the population,
it 
should contain districts one and two, and the third should be the outer
part 
of the county where their are more farmers and other with similar
interests.

Does this make more sense to you then a system where the seats are two
years 
then fours, and districts that are drawn up with no economical,
regional, 
social, or demographical commonality? What do you think?

Donovan J Arnold

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