Wednesday, June 21, 2006 | Re: “Reform the Council,” letters to the editor. I heartily agree with Mr. DiRenza. Changes need to be made at City Hall – something more than a move to strong mayor (which may not even be a move in the right direction).
The problems at City Hall have been perennial, but in my opinion the real leap off the cliff onto the waiting rocks of governmental disaster below occurred when we switched to district elections of City Council members.
In the past, council members were nominated by district primary and were then elected by the city at large. This assured that individual council members had to take into account the interests of all parts of the city. Now, they are only concerned about and are beholden to the residents of their individual districts – the rest of the city be damned.
We need to go back to the old system so that Scott Peters is forced to care about what the people of Normal Heights think and Jim Madaffer the same with regard to Point Loma and so on.