New push to add at-large Prov council seats

Council President Peter S. Mancini says he favors keeping the current approach.

 “We’re not that big of a city, first of all,” says Mancini, who disputes the notion that the status quo precludes broader thinking on the part of councilors. “I’m concerned with my ward and with surrounding wards also. It’s not like I just think of the 14th ward. We have committees that look at big issues. I don’t think that’s a very strong argument. We are parochial in one sense, but I think we can look further than that.”

With ward-based campaigns typically costing $20,000 on the low end, the addition of at-large seats could raise the specter of $100,000 campaigns, favoring more affluent parts of the city, Mancini says.

Wood, however, who defeated a long-term East Side council incumbent in 2006, calls meeting voters one-on-one and winning their support the key to victory. In a minority-majority city where minorities are underrepresented on the council, he also makes the point that adding at-large seats would offer a better chance, for example, to an Asian candidate whose most ardent supporters might be spread across different wards.

While Wood introduced the legislation modeled on the recommendation by 2002 Charter Review Commission, a group of citizens, including Rochelle Lee, Barbara Fields, and Michael Van Leesten, is part of the effort pushing for council support.

Another member of the group, Steve Durkee, says the legislation has to be passed by the council by August 6 to be placed on the November ballot. “Most people I talk to says it’s a great idea,” Durkee says, adding that voters deserve the chance to decide the measure.