I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Detroit's skyline at night (photo: Sagittariuss via Flickr.com)
Overlooked in Wednesday’s Detroit mayoral debate was a small question about a big change in the way the City Council is elected.
Interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and businessman Dave Bing were asked if they support electing city council members by district instead of at-large as they currently are. An effort is underway to begin gathering signatures to put the issue on the ballot in November.
Currently, each of the city council’s eight members are elected by Detroiters from across the city. In essence the city has nine mayors, eight of whom serve on council. In fact, during elections in 2005, Cockrel and Monica Conyers, the current council president, won more votes from the entire city than Kwame Kilpatrick did for mayoral re-election.
Under a district-based election plan, each council member would represent a smaller slice of Detroit. In addition, each council member would have to live in his or her district. Proponents of a reformed elections system argue that the increased contact between representative and district constituents would make council members more responsive to Detroiters’ problems.
Cockrel, who served on the council for 11 years and was council president before becoming interim mayor last year, said district-based elections would be alright if “it’s the right district plan.” Cockrel said the quality of council members falls on voters’ choices, not the elections system.
“At the end of the day it’s not about how you elect people, it’s who you elect. If you elect a clown, that’s what you’re going to get, whether they’re elected from a district or at-large,” he said.
Bing said he fully supported the idea.
“I am in favor of the council by district, absolutely,” he said.
Detroit is the only major U.S. city to have an at-large city council, while most moved to district elections decades ago. The last time the issue was put on the Detroit ballot in 1974, it was rejected.
Justin Miller is a political journalist based in Wayne County who has worked for Real Clear Politics, blogged for The Atlantic and covered the 2008 elections in Ohio for The New York Observer’s Politicker.com network of state politics news sites.
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