Photo by: Will Gentry
The Oklahoma City Council battling over a potential decision to add two new wards to the city.
A special Oklahoma City Council meeting held Jan. 8 discussed the possibility of adding two new wards to Oklahoma City and bringing in two new councilmen.
The idea for creating two new wards came from Ward Four Councilman Pete White. White believes that due to the large population each ward councilman represents, which is over 70,000 people each, it would best to add two new wards to promote better representation of the city’s residents.White’s concern about inadequate representation, however, is not reciprocated amongst all of his fellow councilmen.
“The older members of the council feel as though everybody is representing their wards quite well,” Ward Seven Councilman John Pettis Jr. said. “In fact, that’s part of what we have been battling with over this issue. We are trying to understand why we would do this and what purpose it will serve.”
Besides better serving the large ward populations, White believes increasing the number of wards, and by default increasing the total number of councilmen, could bring more racial diversity to the council.
The only non-Caucasian member of the Oklahoma City Council, including the mayor, is councilman John Pettis Jr., who is African American.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics make up 17.2 percent of Oklahoma City’s population and Asians make up four percent of the city’s population, but there is not an Asian or Hispanic on the city’s council. Despite statistics, some local residents aren’t convinced White’s proposed plan is worth taking into action for “ethnic” reasons.
“I think having an Asian, Hispanic or any other minority on the city council is a great idea and I’d love to see that happen, but I don’t think you have to add two new wards to achieve that,” senior Alexia Jones said. “I don’t think promises of the possibility of more ethnic diversity for the council will help their cause … myself and others also feel as though Oklahoma City should stay the way it is for now.”
Pettis echoed her opinions.
“I totally disagree with [councilman White’s] belief that the addition of two new wards will help create more diversity on the council,” Pettis said. “I think it could actually have more of a negative rather than positive impact upon the whole issue of diversity. I strongly believe under our current system, minorities can win in other wards besides seven, but the biggest problem minority candidates have had over the years is the lack of support. If you want to create more diversity, that’s where you start. You increase support, not create new wards.”
White brought up the possibility of adding two new wards and the new councilmen two years ago, but no actions were taken. Now that it is being revisited, there are two possibilities for the voting of this notion.
First, the Oklahoma City Council could vote on their own to add the two new wards without the vote of the people. The second possibility is to bring about an initiative petition and give the Oklahoma City voters the opportunity to decide. Should they choose to take the initiative petition route, it would require White and any other councilman in favor of the notion to obtain 6,000 signatures before being placed on a ballot of voting.
“The council will be meeting in another couple of weeks to further discuss this issue, but I don’t think there are enough votes for the addition of the two wards to pass it just amongst the council,” Pettis said. “Now, Councilman White does have the option of getting 6,000 signatures for the petition to bring it to the vote of the people, so he may do that if there aren’t enough votes. Even so, creating the new wards won’t get rid of any of the issues that are trying to be fixed.”
Oklahoma City residents seem to be taking a stance similar to Pettis, again emphasizing two wards will not achieve anything.
“If there are issues that need to be fixed, I feel as though the members of our city’s council needs to fix them, not bring in other people to do it,” senior Morgan Beeman said. “And if it’s the issue of diversity, I think it’s up to the people to support the diversity by voting and supporting the minority candidates.”
Jones said the best way to avoid any further issues would be to stand against the idea should a vote arise.
“If the decision does, in fact, go to a vote, I would vote against the addition of two new wards and councilmen,” Jones said. “I think there’s no need for two new wards and it would just be confusing and it would probably just end up making some Oklahoma City residents angrier.”
White has already stated if the ward addition isn’t voted in at City Hall, he is ready to bring it to the voter’s decision.
“Even if the decision is made and two new wards are going to be added, we, as Oklahoma City residents are going to have to pay for it,” Beeman said. “I think making us pay for this isn’t the right way to go.”
Pettis is also against the idea of the added expense.
“You have to look at more staff and more council and everything that goes along with that,” Pettis said. “It would cost some additional funds from the people.”
While the issue will be revisited by the city council in a few weeks, Oklahoma City residents shouldn’t be expecting big changes any time soon.
0
0
Be First to Comment