Ballot proposal would create partial by-ward elections
By Roy Ockert Jr.
While the May elections in Arkansas usually allow the parties to select nominees for various offices and voters to select judges and prosecutors on a nonpartisan basis, this year Jonesboro citizens will face an important ballot issue. If passed, it would change how they elect City Council members.
The question on Jonesboro ballots will be whether one alderman in each of the city’s six wards should be elected by only voters in their respective wards, rather than citywide. For many years all council members in Jonesboro have been subject to the latter.
The council referred the question through ORD-20-27, passed in March 2021, and RES-21-60, passed less than a month later.
What’s odd about the proposal is that, if passed into law, six aldermen would be elected by ward while the other city would continue to be elected citywide. That’s been called a hybrid system, and it would go into effect with this year’s general election.
Those who would be affected are the position 1 aldermen: Charles Frierson, Ward 1; Dr. Charles Coleman, 2; Ann Williams, 3; John Street, 4; L.J. Bryant, 5; and Bobby Long, 6.
The position 2 aldermen are not on the ballot this year but would continue to be elected citywide every four years. They are: Brian Emison, Ward 1; Chris Moore, 2; Chris Gibson, 3; Mitch Johnson, 4; Joe Hafner, 5; and David McClain, 6.
While serving as a consultant for then-Mayor Harold Perrin in 2020, I was asked to do research on ward elections of aldermen.
One thing I found was that at least three previous attempts — between 1976 and 1982 — had been made to change the system of electing aldermen, and none had really gained much support. While the text of those three proposals was not available in Legistar, the city’s records database, minutes of City Council meetings at the time indicated they would have provided for election by wards.
State law requires that candidates for council positions “shall reside in the ward from which they seek to be elected and shall run at large.” However, cities of the first class, of which Jonesboro is one, may provide by ordinance that “all council members be elected by ward, in which case each council member shall be voted upon by the qualified electors of the ward from which he or she is a candidate.”
My report suggested the phrase “all council members be elected by ward” might make the legality of a hybrid system questionable. But City Attorney Carol Duncan also did research on the issue and said she did not have a concern about that issue. Neither did attorneys for the Arkansas Municipal League. They also pointed out that the council could make the change without a vote of the people.
Alderman Bryant proceeded with the hybrid proposal but opted for referring the question to a vote of the people. Little opposition developed, and the ordinance passed unanimously, as did the resolution calling for an election.
One can make a strong argument for citywide elections, or for by-ward elections. But the hybrid system would be novel among Arkansas cities.
My research found only one Arkansas city, Little Rock, with a hybrid system, and it’s different from what is proposed here. Little Rock, which has both a city manager and a popularly elected mayor, elects one director from each of seven wards and three at-large.
I found several studies dealing with by-ward elections of aldermen, including a 2015 report by Hendrix College’s Allred Research Fund concluding that “ward elections have had a positive effect in promoting the election of traditional outsiders (persons of color and women) in the city of Little Rock.” It also said by-ward elections tend to reduce campaign costs for candidates.
Supporters of by-ward elections often argue that they make minority representation more possible. Of course, that depends in large part how the wards are drawn. We know that gerrymandering is always an issue with electing Congressmen. One need only look at the newly drawn Arkansas map, which sliced Little Rock into three separate districts.
I’m skeptical, though, that this proposal would do much to increase the number of women on the council, which for several years has been at just one. In fact, there are more guys named Chris on the council than women; more men named Charles, too.
The council has two of 12 seats filled by black men, which is below the city’s 21 percent black population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the ratio of men to women on the council is far from that in the population, which is approximately 48-52.
The greater problem with the hybrid proposal is that it would create two classes of aldermen — half of them beholden to the voters in their ward and the other half beholden to all voters.
One of the arguments for citywide election supposedly is that aldermen pay greater attention to the concerns of all, rather than just those in their own wards. But most citizens don’t know which aldermen represent them. With a hybrid system, they still won’t. But one may be more motivated to help citizens in his or her own ward.
It would be better to go one way or the other.
Roy Ockert is a former editor of The Jonesboro Sun. He can be reached at royo@suddenlink.net.