In that same process, as a commissioner then, I argued for continuing with 15 districts. I don’t regret taking that position, but I do agree that the functioning of the board has been better with 11 than it was at 15.

She was not speaking with regard to the Gelman problems.

The data shows four Scio Township properties east of Wagner whose residential wells are in use and have had dioxane “hits”, but have not been annexed to the City.

There are three more Scio Township residential wells that showed detectable levels of dioxane but are in an area without access to city water.

Officials especially should pay attention.

“McClary, he said, is interested in having as few commissioners as possible. But his feeling is that if there’s only five commissioners, those people would be very powerful. And because they’d be representing larger districts, he didn’t think the representation would be as strong – their districts would cover too much territory. Kestenbaum said his inclination is towards having more districts.”

While the reporting may be accurate (I was not at the meeting), the information is erroneous: I have taken no position regarding the size of the Board of Commissioners in these upcoming deliberations. I look forward to public input and debate at the upcoming apportionment meetings.

Ten years ago I served on the Apportionment Commission as the County Treasurer. We conducted extensive outreach and public hearings. The most common refrain we heard was that the County Board was too large and both the public and local elected officials favored a smaller Board. I voted for a smaller Board ten years ago, based on the public input and the population distribution that could be mapped into compact districts. My recollection is that it was a unanimous vote.
I served as a Commissioner in the 1970’s when there were 15 Commissioners and I served in the 1980’s when we were redistricted to only 9 Commissioners. While initially I did not favor a smaller Board, it turned out that a smaller Board functioned better, was more effective, and less expensive. Each Commissioner also had more influence negotiating with 8 other Commissioners instead of 14 others. Larry’s comment that “if there’s only five commissioners, those people would be very powerful” is correct.

I have heard that currently elected Commissioners (as was true ten years ago and also when I was re-districted) don’t want to change the number of districts – nor the configuration – it makes re-election easier. Commissioners don’t usually want the number of districts to decrease because it means that districts are combined and a Commissioner would have to compete in a Primary Election against another incumbent to win re-election.

I have not taken a position on the number of Commissioners and hope the other members of the Apportionment Commission have an open mind and conduct public hearings. I would like to hear from the public regarding the number of Commissioners and what would best represent the public’s interest. We also have to look at the population distribution and compactness of districts (according to State law) when determining the best configuration for the Board of Commissioners for the upcoming decade.