Editor,
This concerns your article about the unfortunate proposal to institute district elections in Millbrae (“Former candidate challenges city’s election system” in the Dec. 9 edition of the Daily Journal). The proponent of this significant change in Millbrae government has some good ideas, such as to eliminate out-of-town corporate money from local elections. However, Balkanizing Millbrae through district elections would be divisive and destructive.
First, Millbrae is too small for district elections to make sense. The entire city of Millbrae is smaller than election districts in San Francisco. The notion that smaller election districts are ipso facto better would lead to absurd conclusions.
Second, district elections is a currently-fashionable idea to give the unrepresented a voice in government. But who is unrepresented in Millbrae? It’s not as though we have a ghetto of downtrodden, powerless people. Citizens of differing means, backgrounds and descriptions are scattered around Millbrae. If the issue is race or national origin, note that the proponent of district elections is of the same ethnicity as both the person who defeated him in the last election and the person they both sought to replace.
Setting citizens against each other is not good governance. We are one small city and most of our issues should concern us all. Addressing those common problems will only be impeded if we pit neighborhoods against each other by carving up our small city into voting districts. All members of the City Council should represent our entire city and be responsible to tackle all its issues, not just those that affect a particular voting district. I hope the district election proposal is withdrawn so that better ideas (such as controlling election spending) can move forward.
John Cooney
Millbrae
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(1) comment
District Elections are a divide and conquer technique by the left to wrangle power. In District Elections, the voting power of each citizen is greatly reduced sometimes by 80% depending on how many council member there are in each city. Mr. Kevin Shenkman, an attorney from southern California, will now come in and sue the city of Millbrae. Millbrae citizens better be ready for it and they must unify the city of Millbrae to fight this litigation. It is only a matter of time. To my friends in Millbrae, be ready for this litigation, don't buckle like so many other municipalities have and make sure the plaintiff that Mr. Shenkman chooses to represent has standing. This goes for all other cities that don't already have district elections, they are coming for you.
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