Jeff Michel: Why Middletown needs an at-large council

From the time I moved here some 3-1/2 years ago, I’ve always tried to be an active citizen. I go to many City Council meetings and have helped with a few community groups along the way. I felt this was the greatest opportunity to get out and meet new people in Middletown.

Aware of some of the antics of City Council and the in-fighting at that time, I soon saw this wasn’t the direction of a winning team. I began to speak to neighbors and people throughout the town and noted a theme: A great apathy towards the city of Middletown and its governing members. I decided to get busy and help with as much as I could.

Soon that interest led to many other groups inviting me to work on committees, ranging from the air show to Sunset Park relandscaping.

After council had been given advice from its own hand-picked charter review committee and chose not to put all of the recommended issues on the November ballot, I had to take a stand. I felt my right to vote had been stripped away.

Because council didn’t allow the voters to vote, I was compelled to obtain a petition for the purpose of adding Ordinance 02009-46 to the Nov. 3 ballot. Of the three proposed charter changes not added to the ballot, this change seemed the most important.

This ordinance would allow the voters of Middletown to decide if they want to reduce the size of City Council from seven to five members and to allow all eligible residents to vote for each of the four at-large seats and the directly elected mayor.

I feel this is one of the many important steps toward building a better future for Middletown.

We need to reduce the size of council from seven to five members and have an at-large council for many reasons:

• The reduction from seven to five council members is the best way to get a more efficient governing body.

• The short history of the ward system since 1994, when it began, has shown very little positive change in the level of growth. In fact, I would say the city has progressively gotten worse in the last decade. Since council is the governing body, I would have to put part of the blame on them. Though council has changed recently for the better, I still feel there are too many cooks in the kitchen. So, seven isn’t really helping us get to the goal of bettering our community in the shortest time.

• The wards, in my opinion, are actually splintering the town. Every community has different socioeconomic groups. By having the wards, we tend to pre-judge the people of that ward because of where they live. There are $50,000 homes and $200,000 homes in all parts of town. Each ward includes every socioeconomic group.

• All issues should be of equal importance to all parts of every corner of this beautiful city. Do the roads only need to be fixed in one part of town? Is there crime only in one part of town?

• To say a council person will only defend the ward they live in is unbelievable to me. It goes against the “work as one team” goal. We must work together! Bring the issues from each neighborhood and let’s debate them in council chambers. If we only work in our own small area of town, the rest of the town loses out and we all falter again.

• Good candidates willing to run are few and far between. We need to make the opportunity to serve available, regardless of where they might live.

• Our council represents 51,000 people. Of all those potential candidates, I get to vote for two sometimes and four when at-large candidates run. I can’t vote on a representative for another area but the decisions made by that council member affect all parts of town.

• This charter issue, if passed, will take effect in 2014. This long-range planning is vital for the future.

• This move would also save the city $10,000 per year by eliminating the salaries of two council members.

All locations in Middletown are important to me. I hope the town is important to all who live here, not just small neighborhoods here and there.

We owe it to Middletown to have all available opportunities laid out before us. If everyone who is eligible to vote does so, that’s the direction I feel is most fair.

This ordinance is of such great importance to this town that it has become a divisive factor in the decision of many to reject the opportunity to vote at all. Don’t let people talk you out of one of your most important rights — the right to vote.

Signing the petition is just to get the issue on the ballot. It does not mean you are for or against the proposed ordinance change; it means you’d like the opportunity to vote on it.

Jeffrey Michel, a landscape designer, is president of Keep Middletown Beautiful, president of the Highlands Historic District and a member of the City Tree Commission.