Very recently the proposal to reduce and redraw Bremerton City Council districts down to seven was reintroduced. It was brought forward by City Councilman Greg Wheeler. I very much support this idea and feel that the timing is right and necessary to finally make this change happen.

Greg Wheeler is not my City Council representative, Roy Runyon is. Both Greg and Roy live just a few blocks away from me since my home is very close to a district border. They are my neighbors and I most definitely consider both of them to be my friends. Greg and Roy have been open, over the years, to any discussion about the neighborhood or city I bring to them. They are both very generous with their time and responses to me.

It is important that communities scale the size of their government representation to what they can afford and to what size will be the most effective for the overall decision making process. There are times where that can mean an increase. The Port of Bremerton Commissioners come to mind since there are only three of them which creates its own set of problems, and other times where a reduction is warranted, such as now with the City Council.

Currently the Bremerton City Council is large and cumbersome. Having attended City Council meetings personally and addressed the Council directly, it is rather daunting and time consuming from the public side for that many representative individuals to get the information they need from city staff, to make all of their reports about the issues in their districts, to question and comment on all the issues being presented to them and so on. A lengthy discussion that occurred before me during one City Council meeting with nearly every single council member chiming in about whether or not it should be the fish catching the fisherman or the fisherman catching the fish made me almost weep with a whole host of frustrations. Committee work on specific issues does help, but overall a reduction in council members from nine to seven would be large step forward in the improvement of overall     efficiency.

I do not consider the complaint that running for City Council in a larger district would create any undue hardship on the candidates in their ability to connect with voters as a valid one. There are many ways to connect with voters. Knocking on doors is only one of them. I have helped with enough local campaigns to know that individuals who choose to run for office do so with a passion that transcends the number of people they will be representing whether that number is 50 or 5,000.

The best leaders maintain their connections with their neighbors and their constituents in and out of election years. I know because I have two excellent examples of this continuous connection in Greg and Roy.

I would very much like to see the council support the redraw/reduction proposal at this time and advance it to the voters for a decision this fall.