Saline MI
10-21-2024 5:41pm

EDITORIAL: Here's Why 4-Year Council Terms Don't Serve the City of Saline

There are two questions before City of Saline voters this November. Both are charter amendments.

Proposal A, along with some language modernization, extends the terms of the mayor and city council from two to four years.

Proposal B formalizes a process that's already in place - it allows the Local Officers Compensation Commission to recommend compensation for the mayor and council. Approval would lie with the council.

B is an easy Yes. Nothing changes - except badly outdated city charter language.

I will be voting No on Proposal A.

Thus far, I've heard a single valid reason for going to four-year terms - saving money. And not that much.

Other reasons are fanciful, at best. Somehow, the city will benefit from having terms that line up with the township, board and county. Councillor Nicole Rice says sometimes they work on projects together.  The kinds of projects that have boards and committees working together have room for private citizens to participate. It also needs to be said that perhaps voters didn't like the project, didn't see it as valuable, or didn't see the incumbent as important to the project.

Another reason I've heard is that more people will vote, since it's a Presidential election or Gubernatorial election. Is that really a good thing? People who don't vote in off-year elections aren't really that engaged, are they? If they were, it wouldn't take Trump-vs=Harris contest to get them to vote. 

Personally, back in the day, I liked covering the February village elections. Maybe only 500 people voted, but those 500 people were generally engaged citizens who followed local matters. I'll take the composite opinion of 500 engaged citizens over  2500 "I'm here anyways so I might as well vote for Mayor" votes. During the last on-year, the third-place finisher in the council race got 2262 votes. In the last off-year, the third-place finisher received 1083 votes.

And that's one of the ways this benefits incumbents. "On-year" election voters are more likely to be name-recognition voters.

Even with two-year terms, incumbents have a massive advantage.

A Saline City Council incumbent hasn't lost since 2007. That's a long time. Since 1999, only two incumbents have lost. Since 1984, only one incumbent mayor has lost. Once, in 20 elections.

Here's a look at votes since 1984 - which is about how far back the city votes go on the county's website. Those records were incomplete and supplemented by old Saline Reporter stories.

Green shows an incumbent re-elected. Brown shows an incumbent who lost.

If we go to four years, what we'll do is cut in half the opportunities for someone to throw their hat into the ring. That's not a good trade-off in my book.

We'll increase the name recognition of incumbents by doubling their terms.

And we'll make name recognition an even bigger factor because we'll have a greater share of the voters being people who really don't follow city council.

The truth is, since 2010, it's been more likely to have a council person resign and be replaced by a council vote than it has been to lose as an incumbent. That's if they bother to resign. More recently, Dawn Krause moved out of the city and stopped showing up for council. If we double council terms, we double the likelihood of council-appointed councillors, which gives council-selected candidates the name-recognition advantage.

If Saline citizens become more engaged and elections become more contested, I'd like to see Saline voters have the opportunity to make changes within the calendar year. Or stay with what they've got, if that's what they prefer.

Lastly, Saline City Council still has a non-partisan appearance. Fully aligning with the partisan elections will increase the likelihood that our local elections are more partisan. And that sort of toxicity is the last thing we need.

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10-22-2024 10:56am

Dear Editor,

Several of these points are valid and worth considering.  It has given me something to think about as November nears and I'm glad you raised the concern for us to contemplate.  That being said, given my experience of serving on the council for four years (two terms), I remain unconvinced that moving from 2 to 4 year terms will have much of an impact on an engaged and informed citizenry or lack thereof. 

Saline has had 2 year terms for decades, as you point out, and I would argue that public engagement at city council meetings today along with members of the community being thoroughly plugged in/aware of the issues before the council are at an all time record low.  One might even describe public participation in the process as abysmal.

Perhaps this is more a function of the digital age and life in the 21st century?  Printed local newspapers not able to survive in today's times?  The ubiquitous presence of misinformation being disseminated and propagated on social media?  These thoughts are sheer conjecture on my part as I'm not suggesting this is the sole explanation for the civic apathy crisis that's observed in small towns like Saline across America. I'm certain the problem is more complicated as a whole. 

An in depth knowledge and understanding of how municipal governance affects a day in the life for the average household anywhere in America takes time, dedication and commitment to cultivate and maintain.  The pace of life and the cost of living has placed a greater urgency for most to focus squarely on what's directly in front of them. We need to pay mind to the immediate moment from one day to the next and many of us are just getting by on getting by.  

Will staying with two year terms lessen the likelihood of incumbent advantage and poor public participation ?  Perhaps.  I personally believe that a charter amendment that imposes term limits on the length of terms that one can serve in local public office would provide a more substantive change toward that end.  Such a measure was taken by the voters at the level of the Michigan State Legislature with a ballot initiative proposal in 2022.  

I am curious to know how others in the community feel about this type of change to the structure of our local governance here in Saline as a measure taken to address the vexing issues raised in this article. 

 

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