[Vision2020] County Commissioner Terms and Districts

[Donovan Arnold]

Mark,

Thanks for your comments.

I think a lot of people don't comment on the districts because they don't 
understand them. Further, they don't effect the voters, more just the people 
that want to run. For example, I would love to have Pat Vaughan, Linda Pike, 
and Tom as our commissioners. But that cannot happen because of the way the 
districts are drawn. The confusing aspect is that everyone gets to vote, 
even for districts they don't live in.

I don't like the pie districting at all, a bull's-eye or two for the city 
and one for the outer county is better. I don't know of a soul that can tell 
you exactly where the districts lines fall. Most people have to look on a 
map. I would bet you lunch at Patty's that 90% of Moscow residents could not 
tell you if they live in District 1, 2, or 3.

If you want to be able to shake things up in the County and be able to kick 
out the commissioners, why not just make them all two year terms instead of 
confusing people.

You should be able to answer the following question with ease:

Which District seat(s) will be up for election in 2012, 2026, and 2028. If 
you cannot answer quickly, the system is to confusing.

I can tell you if any given year is an election year for the President or 
Governor with little, if no calculation.

Thanks,

Donovan J Arnold


>From: Mark Solomon <msolomon at moscow.com>
>To: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanarnold at hotmail.com>, Vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] County Commissioner Terms and Districts
>Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:49:44 -0700
>
>Donovan,
>
>All good points that with one exception (district boundaries) are written 
>in state statute and out of the hands of local decision-makers. I'd be 
>reluctant to advocate changing the election cycle as it guarantees that a 
>majority of the board is up for election every two years allowing 
>reasonably quick voter response to commissioner action/inactions.
>
>Regarding the commissioner districts, while I was commissioner we re-drew 
>the district boundaries for the first time in at least 40 years to more 
>accurately reflect the changing county population densities. As part of 
>that action, we invited public comment on how we should draw them: pie 
>shape to include some of Moscow and the rural county in each district or 
>make two districts essentially Moscow districts. The pie shaped form was 
>the original. My preference would have been to make districts that 
>reflected demographic groups (Moscow and rural county) rather than the 
>existing pie shapes, but there were no public comments supporting a shift 
>resulting from the extensively advertised public hearing process.
>
>Mark Solomon
>
>At 8:40 PM -0700 8/16/04, Donovan Arnold wrote:
>>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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