An expanded City Council is a good idea

Posted By: Staff August 9, 2022

On Wednesday the Bristol City Council is scheduled to vote for approval of the changes to the city charter proposed to them by the Charter Revision Commission. Only one of the proposals is doubtful of being approved, because the council already requested the Charter Commissioners to remove the proposal from their list. That proposal is for the expansion of the City Council from six to nine members with guaranteed minority representation.

The proposal reads: “To approve or reject increasing the membership of the City Council from two to three members per district through multi party representation and increasing the membership of the Board of Finance from eight to eleven members.” What it boils down to is that both parties will still nominate two candidates for each city district, but three candidates will win election in each district instead of two. In effect, it guarantees that the City Council will have three representatives from the minority party.

The proposal also includes an increase in the makeup of the Board of Finance from eight to eleven members. That number might be a bit unwieldy but still totally manageable when it comes to joint board votes.

When the Charter Revision Commission received the request to remove this proposal from their list, interestingly enough they voted unanimously to keep it and send it back to the Council to be voted on yea or nay. Why would Charter Commissioners do this? Because it would be a big improvement for the governing structure of Bristol. And it is an idea that the voters should get to accept or reject.

Let us look at the reasons it should be put on November’s ballot:

  • It would guarantee that issues would have to be examined from both sides of the political spectrum.
  • In the past two city elections, first the Democrats and then the Republicans swept all positions, and many have argued the Council became a rubber stamp of what the Mayor wanted. This would remove that objection.
  • Our city already requires that every board and commision have minority representation, including the elected Board of Education. The only political entity that does not have this provision is the City Council.
  • It could ease the load on City Councilors to sit on so many boards, having to attend at times several meetings a week; the load could be shared by nine members instead of three.
  • It would encourage compromise between the parties, something desperately needed as the environment in recent years has been to look at the other side as Satan incarnate.
  • This proposal was endorsed by Mayor Caggiano himself, and he had to know its impact at the time he proposed it.

And what were the arguments to remove this proposal from the ballot? There were two things that were mentioned.

  • It would increase the cost of government in town.
  • We already have a vote for either party’s candidate.

That’s it. So let us address those arguments. First the expense- a member of the City Council earns approximately $10,000 a year. Three extra councilors would cost the taxpayers about $30,000. Bristol has a budget of over $215 million. That comes out to 1/100 of one percent of the budget. Does that expenditure seem worthwhile in that context? Absolutely!

Second- the people already have a vote. True, but in a one-party legislature does the 48 percent of the electorate who voted for the losing side have any representation? No, not an iota.

These are the reasons why the editors of The Bristol Edition urge the City Council to put an expanded council proposal on this year’s ballot.

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