From the campaign platform of Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for mayor of Syracuse http://www.syracusegreens.org/archives/000217.html October 04, 2005 Hawkins Calls for a New City Charter for Neighborhood-Based City Government Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Mayor in Syracuse, called today for a new city charter to establish a "neighborhood-based city government." "We need to empower the neighborhoods," Hawkins declared. "That will make city government more responsive and foster the vibrant civic life we need at the grassroots to build community and improve our quality of life," he said. The charter proposal calls for neighborhood assemblies, neighborhood- based representation at the city level, instant runoff voting for electing single-member offices, proportional representation for Common Council elections, public campaign financing, and the vote for 16-year olds in local elections. "The foundation of this charter proposal is Neighborhood Assemblies in the 25 or so real city neighborhoods where every resident will have a voice and vote like a New England Town Meeting," Hawkins said. The neighborhood assemblies would replace the eight advisory Today's Neighborhoods Tomorrow (TNT) sectors with "empowered neighborhood governments. They would have the power to plan neighborhood development and guide the local delivery of city services," Hawkins said. The Neighborhood Assemblies would also elect neighborhood representatives to Common Council, the school board, and other city boards and commissions. "We need to get back to the neighborhood-based representation Syracuse had before the 1935 charter changes when each of the city's 19 wards elected a councilor, a school board member, a county supervisor, and a ward constable. Fewer representatives and larger districts has weakened accountability and constituent service," Hawkins said. Hawkins also proposed reforms in how city officials are elected, calling for instant runoff voting for single-seat elections and proportional representation on Common Council. "Instant runoff voting and proportional representation will create a multi-party democracy where no vote is wasted and all points of view are represented. Every vote will help elect representatives and every citizen will have representatives of his or her party on Common Council. That will increase voter turn-out and civic participation generally," Hawkins said. Instant Runoff Voting would apply to the election of single-seat offices, including district councilors, neighborhood members of city boards and commissions, and the Mayor, Council President, and Auditor. Under Instant Runoff Voting, voters rank their choices on the ballot in order of preference: 1, 2, 3, and so on. It takes a majority of votes to win. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, an instant runoff election is held by eliminating the last place candidate in the first round and transferring that candidate's votes to their second choices. This process continues until the most preferred candidate receives a majority of votes. "Instant Runoff Voting will end the problem of 'spoiled' elections when three candidates run, the two most preferred candidates split the majority of votes, and the least preferred candidate ends up winning by a plurality," Hawkins said. Instant runoff voting is now used for statewide offices in Vermont and mayoral and city council races in Oakland, California and Ferndale, Michigan For Common Council elections, Hawkins called for a system of proportional representation where each party gets seats on the council in proportion to the support it receives in the election. Hawkins called for "mixed-member proportional representation" system where half the seats are elected by instant runoff voting from neighborhood districts and the other half are elected at-large by votes for parties. Voters thus have two votes, one for their district councilor and one for their favored party. After the district winners are determined, the remaining councilors are added from each party's list of at-large candidates to make the overall composition of the council reflect the party vote in the election. Mixed-member proportional representation is the system used in a number of countries, including Germany, New Zealand, and Venezuela. Hawkins' public campaign financing proposal calls for a voluntary system where all ballot-qualified candidates who agree not to accept private money get an equal allotment of public campaign funds sufficient to inform the voters of their candidacy and platform through the mail and, for citywide offices, broadcast advertising. "Our elections have been privatized. Private campaign financing is legalized bribery. Look at how the city contractors line up to contribute to the major party candidates. Public elections should be publicly financed. It would cost taxpayers a few dollars a year. That's a small price to pay for democracy," Hawkins said. Hawkins said his proposal to enfranchise 16-year olds in Syracuse for the Neighborhood Assemblies and local elections would "engage the youth in the civic life of their neighborhood and city and help instill a lifelong habit of political participation." Posted by syracusegreens at October 4, 2005 03:28 AM Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/KSwplB/TM Yahoo! 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