George,

I don’t know why Lloyd Snook continues to assume that whatever method we choose for electing the School Board will also be used to elect City Council. In his recent posting http://loper.org/~george/archives/2005/Nov/865.html he says: “Make no mistake about it -- the next battle after this one will be to have ward-based City Council elections. If we have a ridiculous ward structure for the School Board, we will be stuck with a ridiculous ward structure for City Council.”

There is no LEGAL requirement that wards be used for Council elections if the School Board has ward-based elections. The only way the Council would ever have wards in its elections would be if a majority of the Council desired to have them. This means that a majority of Council would have to be Republican. Republicans are virtually the only political activists in town who want wards for Council. I assume no one thinks the Republicans will have a majority on Council anytime soon.

David Repass (electronic mail, November 30, 2005)