“I am not a vindictive person,” said Sen. Chuck Edwards, speaking with Xpress after the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast meeting with state legislators on Oct. 4. “I find it would be against my nature to do anything to harm my constituency because I disagree with any particular policy.”
The District 48 Republican, who represents Henderson, Transylvania and eastern Buncombe counties as of the Sept. 17 redrawing of state electoral maps, was responding to Asheville City Council’s pending move to amend the city’s charter. At Council’s Tuesday, Oct. 22, meeting, members are expected to undo the election districting imposed on Asheville last year by Senate Bill 813, of which Edwards was the sole sponsor.
Brad Branham, Asheville’s city attorney, noted in a staff report about Council’s action that choosing to countermand district elections “may result in diminished goodwill and additional provocation from the General Assembly.” While Edwards downplayed those consequences, he said he remained firm in his desire to see the city take a different approach to electing its municipal representatives.
“I’m extremely disappointed to see that the city of Asheville continues to deny citizens in any particular district [the chance] to have a Council person that would represent their particular interests and be held accountable through an election system,” Edwards explained. “I get constant feedback from constituents in Asheville that they can’t get City Council folks to pick up the phone, let alone to listen to a specific concern that they might have in their neighborhood.”
Edwards noted that he would wait for Council to finalize its moves before deciding on a response. He would not rule out introducing another piece of legislation to undo the charter change, saying that “all possible options” were on the table.
Asked about the alternative proposal of Council member Vijay Kapoor, which would keep Edwards’ districts but add two at-large Council seats — expanding the body to nine members and limiting them all to two terms in office — the senator said he appreciated Kapoor’s spirit of compromise but had not evaluated his specific plan. Kapoor recently drew the ire of colleagues Keith Young and Sheneika Smith, Council’s two African American members, after asking Asheville’s Office of Equity and Inclusion to evaluate the racial impacts of districting, which Young and Smith have claimed dilute black voting power.
Asheville’s transition to a district system, Edwards suggested, would be a much-needed step forward. Of the 15 most-populous municipalities in North Carolina, he pointed out, only Asheville and Wilmington currently elect no local representation using wards or districts.
“The current election system for the city of Asheville has been in place since the late 1700s,” Edwards said. “There has to be a point in time that the leadership of Asheville would look to modernize that election system to become, in some form, more like most of the municipalities in North Carolina.”
But Julie Mayfield said maybe council (without districts) could maybe come up with a way to assign a councilperson to areas of the city so maybe everyone could have a contact person on council and districts are not needed! Voila! Problem solved.
Not really. Assigning a councilmember a “district” is nowhere the same as that person being elected from that area.
Asheville City Council does need change. 5 districts and 2 or 3 at large plus the Mayor at large is what every major city in NC has been doing. Also, all major cities have 2 year terms instead of 4. 4 year terms are a huge disincentive for qualified people to run as 4 years is a huge commitment. Unfortunately only a handful of those elected for 4 years actually stay active/involved as they end up “checking out” sooner than later. 2 years is the way to go, but Council rejected that proposal as well.
Sensible comment. District representation, plus some overall representation, is the way to go. Council member Kapoor has made a good suggestion.
Yup. I’m the one that did the research behind his suggestion. Look for yourself. Check other equivalent cities in NC. All have this approach. All At-Large has downsides. Councilmembers that are only concerned about one or two issues; no support for neighborhood or area concerns. Doesn’t work in a growing/changing city.
Of course “assigning” a council person is a ludicrous idea, but its so Julie Mayfield, tossing off a crumb to the dumbarses on her way to bigger and better dumbarses. Lol
Why did council member Kapoor “draw the ire of colleagues”?
My colleague Brooke Randle wrote an explanation of the back-and-forth between Kapoor and the other Council members, which you can read here: https://mountainx.com/news/council-viewpoints-differ-on-impact-of-district-elections-on-minority-voters/
Hmmmm… Sen. Edwards says “I get constant feedback from constituents in Asheville that they can’t get City Council folks to pick up the phone, let alone to listen to a specific concern that they might have in their neighborhood.” If that’s true, then why was Sen. Edwards unable to provide a single e-mail, letter, message or note to that effect when I made a public records request of him on this matter?