Alan Shilepsky wrote, "Am I in the Twilight Zone or something. Judy
Farmer, who has been on the School Board for as long as I can remember,
often as its head, is endorsed for yet another term, and a bright,
thoughtful, articulate, has paid-his-dues young(ish) man of color like
Jonathan Palmer is rejected?! It is not like everybody is thrilled with the
job the Mpls Schools is doing and wants to retain a winning team. The
Minneapolis is not producing results we want to continue with so we need
some new blood to push for constructive change."
Joe Barisonzi wrote, "While I am exceptionally excited about Joe
Erickson and Colleen Moriarty's potential on the board; I wish that someone
had the power to make a strategic decision on behalf of the DFL and the city
and urge Judy Farmer who has had the opportunity to serve on the board for
long enough to see more then one class enter kindergarten and graduate high
school, to step aside and support emerging civic leadership."
[BRM] The only evident argument that Alan and Joe are offering
against Judy Farmer's candidacy is that she is the most experienced leader
on the school board, and that the voters have repeatedly returned her to
office. Some employers actually prefer experience over inexperience,
especially in a job that requires long-term thinking and complex
problem-solving--which may explain why the City's voters keep re-electing
Judy, often as their top vote-getter. The results at the City DFL Convention
were similar: the delegates endorsed Judy, Joe, and Colleen on the first
ballot, all with 70 percent of the vote or better, with Judy in the lead at
72 percent. Judy and the other endorsed candidates were not just squeaking
by with a bare majority, they were winning a ringing endorsement with a
landslide that included a broad cross-section of constituencies and
interests.
Joe "wish[es] that someone had the power to make a strategic
decision on behalf of the DFL and the city and urge Judy Farmer . . . to
step aside and support emerging civic leadership." The "someone" who is
empowered with that "strategic decision" is the City DFL Convention, which
made its choice in favor of the candidates that it endorsed.
I do not understand why Alan's and Joe's criticism is aimed at Judy
in particular. Alan writes that MPS "is not producing results we want to
continue with so we need some new blood to push for constructive change."
Unfortunately, "new blood" is not always the solution to a problem: the
problem may have been much worse, but for the leadership of the team that
has been working on solving it. The solution that Alan are Joe are
suggesting may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If Alan and Joe
object to particular choices that Judy or the other incumbents have made,
then I invite them to identify those choices and their objections. But all
that I can see here is an unsubstantiated argument against experience and
incumbency.
Alan Shilepsky wrote, "To me this endorsement failure shows the
bankrupcy of the Mpls DFL Party (as did some of its 2001 endorsements), and
makes me proud to have left it. I will not be held responsible for its
myopia, its debts and its mistakes."
[BRM] It is somewhat ironic that Alan, who is a declared nonmember
of the DFL Party, is announcing his disagreement with its choices like it is
somehow newsworthy. A political party is a collection of like-minded (at
least in some respects) individuals who are working together for a common
purpose. Since Alan identifies himself as someone who is not of like mind
with the DFL Party, it is not news that the Party has made some choices that
differ from the choices that Alan would have made. We can discuss those
choices on the merits, but the fact that they differ is a non-event.
I especially do not understand Alan's statement that he "will not be
held responsible." Was someone trying to?
Alan Shilepsky wrote, "It also shows the need for electoral
reform--we need to elect School Board members either via districts or,
better, by proportional representation. Does Phillips, Seward and
Powderhorn have a School Board member, or do the four corners know what's
best for them?"
[BRM] Now here is an idea that I can get on board with. Proportional
voting would be a much superior method of electing candidates to a
multimember board like the school board. The principle behind proportional
voting is that representatives ought to reflect the makeup of the whole
electorate rather than the view only of a majority. The representative body
ought to represent a pluralistic census of opinions, not a consensus of
opinion. A more diverse, pluralistic representative body results. (By the
way, I am speaking here only for myself, not for the DFL Party, which does
not necessarily share my views on this point. The Party has not taken any
view for or against any particular method of electing the school board or
any municipal board or officer.)
Erik Riese wrote, "First, I think we have proportional
representation now on the school board. The top "x #" of vote getters are
elected for the available number of seats."
[BRM] Erik's two statements are contradictory. Minneapolis elects
its school board using a first-past-the-post system, in which the biggest
pluralities win. This system is directly antithetical to the
proportional-voting system that Alan was advocating.
Proportional voting is a form of preferential voting. Each voter
ranks the candidates in order of preference. A key concept in proportional
voting is the "threshold" needed for election. The threshold is 1/(n+1),
where "n" is the number of representatives being elected. (This concept is
already familiar as the basis for the simple majority needed for election in
a single-representative election: if the number of representatives being
elected is one, the threshold is 1/(1+1), or 1/2.) Any candidate who reaches
the threshold is elected. In a multi-representative election, like a
school-board election, proportional voting gives a representative to any
minority that can reach the threshold, rather than let the majority (or even
a mere plurality) control all the representatives and exclude every minority
candidate.
BRM
Brian Melendez
St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
_______________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
