Friday, November 02, 2012

Who Loses Their Voice?

Back-of-ballot issue: Size of Oneida County Board of Legislators
Oneida County voters will get to decide whether to reduce the size of the Board of Legislators from 29 to 23.
The move would save taxpayers about $50,000 a year. It also would mean each remaining legislator will represent more area and people.
It's interesting how the voters are being asked to approve this reduction BEFORE district lines are redrawn.  Is this another power grab by you-know-who? $50K doesn't seem like a big price to pay to keep what we know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would definitely vote against such an item.

In order to properly present such a redistricting plan, there should be a firm plan put forth as to where the redrawn district lines will be.

Such a redistricting plan should be written into the ballot proposal so that it cannot be changed if passed by the voters. It should not be left to be addressed AFTER the vote. Anyone who votes to allow your county government to determine the lines AFTER the vote, is allowing the lines to corrupted by partisan political influence.

I would be willing to bet that your county exec and his cronies already have THEIR plan drawn out and ready to implement as soon as those silly enough to vote yes to the proposal have passed the ballot item. DON'T DO IT!

JBurch said...

From 2009-11 the Republicans held only a two-seat majority over the Democrats on the Board. That created a lot of consternation because of the possibility of some Republicans being enticed to side with the Democrats. So, Picente initiated the subject of reducing the size of the Board and afterwards redistricting. It was obvious that the redistricting would be done in a manner to help ensure a continued Republican majority. The voters need to vote NO to this power grab.

Anonymous said...

Voter's should initiate their own power grab, by throwing Picente out of office.

His new scheme falls in line with his meddling in the County Board of Elections, the Medical Examiner's fiasco & now this.

It's time for him to go.

Anonymous said...

What does the county legislature do anyhow?

Bring back the Board of Supervisors and eliminate the whole stinkin' layer of government waste.