If it aint broke tune it up
There are many benefits to having a Ward System. Especially in a socially homogeneous town like Windsor. First of all we want to have an electoral system which is fairly representative of the entire city. The system has to allow for a diversity of opinion right down to each citizen. Those opinions, in turn, should be brought forward by elected Ward Councillors. When there is trouble or problems in our Wards, those same Councillors must be available to help resolve the issues. Wards have to be as equal as possible in terms of voting population and contiguous in their size and scope. This helps guarantee that no single Ward has more or less sway than any other. When we elect our Councillors we are in effect challenging them to become fully knowlegable of their respective turf. As local democracy goes, they have to prove their worth to eligible electors every four years. Windsor's report card is due in 2010.
Best practice is to look at our Ward structure every four years, right before election time, so that changing populations can be taken into account. The Ward map may or may not be altered depending on shifts in electoral populations. From there the political character of each area can take form for the ensuing municipal elections.
Windsor's Ward System Works
Windsor has five Wards with ten elected Councillors. The system works pretty much as it is supposed to with the current exception being that wards 1 and 5 have grown disproportionately compared to the others (by approximately two to one). In 2006 the figures looked as follows:
Ward 1: 42,225 eligible voters and a total population of 55,171
Ward 2: 22,837 eligible voters and a total population of 32,984
Ward 3: 25,875 elibible voters and a total population of 35,850
Ward 4: 26,695 eligible voters and a total population of 34,608
Ward 5: 35,136 eligible voters and a total population of 46,730
What might have changed since 2006? Lots. Housing developement, population exodus to other cities or other urban areas to name a couple. Most noticeable from this data is the electorate imbalance in wards 1 and 5. This alone indicates that the map should change.
In 2008, the City administration hired a consultant to review and make suggestions to update our current ward structure. His name is Dr. Robert Williams and here are the options which he is putting forward:
- change the boundaries of the five wards to create equal electorate numbers;
- cut back to four wards with two councillors each;
- create 10 wards with one councillor each;
- create eight wards with one councillor each.
- cut back to four wards with two councillors each;
- create 10 wards with one councillor each;
- create eight wards with one councillor each.
See this Windsor star article:
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Ward+review+urges+change/1486850/story.html
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Ward+review+urges+change/1486850/story.html
Since our current ward arrangement seems to be adequate in most regards and since the ward map offers room for easy tweaks, the first option is the most logical. All of the others will end up costing a lot of time, money and effort to implement. They will also bring redundancy and extra cost to the election process.
Another Option
Another idea would be to keep the five wards which we currently have and reduce the number of councillors to one per ward. This will keep opinions and ideas from cancelling each other out and it will add a little more creative spark to governance. In place of a second councillor we could add a "full time" Ward Administrator who works in conjunction with the Councillor to see to it that all issues get handled in an appropriate, timely and fair manner. Accessible all day, every day. Together they would operate as a sort of "ward team". This position would be a term position and applicants would be selected by each Councillor. Remuneration for such a position would be the same as that of the Councillor.
A Suggestion for the Ward Map
Here are two City of Windsor Ward Maps. One is the current, official map and the other is a proposal to help balance the current ward discrepancies:
Ward map Proposal. Areas of change circled in Red. An approach to better Balance
Have Your Say
Take your shot at this thing. There will be two meetings for public input today as follows:
Between 4 and 6 p.m. at Windsor Water World, 400 Wyandotte St. E.
and
From 7 to 9 p.m. at South Windsor Arena, 2555 Pulford Ave.
11 comments:
I agree. Updating the current ward map is the way to go. Keep the same number of Councilors. More wards just mean more work for nothing and super wards will make it harder for all to have a say. Your 5 Councilor system looks interesting too.
I attended the meeting in South Windsor tonight. Eddies typical "Public Input Meeting". "You can input all you like as long as it is one of the options we give you". The usual hire of a third party consultant at $50,000.00 to add a layer between us and our local government. Somebody actually asked about an option similar to the one suggested here but it was flamed immediately. I think the current administration wants a ten ward system to deal with the fact that all of Windsor's ward representatives are not speaking with one another. They provided four ward maps all of which were too complex and divisive. What is this regime up to now?
Good proposal. Seems logical and familiar.
A ten ward system!??? Wow! That will surely bring all of the socialists and quacks out of the woodwork.
I prefer either the ten ward system, one Councillor per, or your suggestion of five wards, one per with a Ward administrator. A full time resource available to each Councillor would be invaluable. The only condition would be that the position is funded out of an office budget assigned to each Councillor. In this way, they are employees of the Councillor and not the City. That way avoids a bureaucratic power base building up within each ward.
Your ward boundaries are logical extensions of what we already have. Ward 1 is pared down nicely. Ward 4 is the only one with plenty of room to grow. Especially north of the expressway and east of Walker. Way to go.
Your plan makes sense, but I would make two changes:
(1) Ward 1 still has approx. 20,000 more people than Ward 2. To balance populations, I would suggest using E.C. Row as the boundary.
(2) The few streets east of Banwell and south of Tecumseh (Viola, Palmetto, Arpino, Seville) should be part of Ward 5 instead of Ward 4. This would affect approx. 150 people.
To Anonymous last...
I agree that E.C. Row should be the southern boundary which works out nicely for Ward 3 and even Ward 2 if necessary. Also the minor changes for wards 4 and 5. Geographically they make sense. I will revise the map and post a little later. I would also move the Ward2/Ward3 boundary east to Howard to get the divide away from Ouellette. I would also push the Ward3/Ward4 boundary east to Drouillard. These changes will better balance the disproportionate/changing populations of the wards while at the same time keep the ward map very familiar. I don't think it needs to change so radically. With all of the other things going on locally this issue is geting buried. We need to start focusing on it now.
Here is my official submission re: Windsor ward boundary review.
http://citywardmaps.googlepages.com/WardSubmission.pdf
For some reason it's chopping off the .pdf at the end of the above URL. It should be WardSubmission.pdf
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