Longer city council terms? Two Charlotte icons say “Don’t do it!” | Opinion
Editor’s note: Hugh McColl Jr. is the former chairman of Bank of America and Richard Vinroot is a former Charlotte mayor. They wrote in response to proposals outlined in this article: “New Charlotte City Council district, longer terms could be on 2023 ballots,” (Feb. 14):
In the immortal words of that great American League philosopher, Yankee great Yogi Berra: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
As a Democrat (Hugh) and a Republican (Richard), respectively, we often disagree. However, with regard to the recent proposals by Charlotte’s City Council to 1) extend mayoral and council terms from 2 to 4 years; 2) make all council members’ terms “staggered;” and 3) add an eighth city council district, so that our council will have 12 members (with eight district and four at-large seats), we’re with Yogi: Don’t do it!
As to the first two proposals — 4-year and staggered terms — we think you should relabel each as a “Sitting Council Protection Act” because that’s their likely effect: Making it harder to “throw the rascals out” as any future misbehavior may merit.
While we now have excellent city (and county) leaders, there have been occasions in the past where many voters wished to replace the entire council (e.g., the controversial uptown “coliseum” vote many years ago). Extending council members’ terms and requiring that they be “staggered” would make replacing the entire council more difficult to achieve in the future.
For that reason alone, we respectfully recommend that our fellow citizens vote “no” on those two proposals.
With regard to the third proposal — adding a new “eighth” district — we would support that had the Council also proposed to eliminate one “at-large” seat, so that the total council membership remained at 11.
However, by leaving four at-large seats intact, a 12-member council will likely result in too many tie votes in our judgment, thus we oppose that format as well.
Finally, if the referendum should be limited to a proposal expanding the district membership of the City Council from 7 to 8, and eliminating one at-large seat — so that the total number of council members remained at 11 — we’re ambivalent. Or as Yogi Berra also said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”