2 councilmen assail '9 is fine'

9/10/2009

Two Toledo district councilmen warned constituents yesterday that approving Issue 2 on next week's ballot to reduce the size of council from a dozen members to nine would hurt central and East Toledo.

Councilmen Mike Craig and Wilma Brown said supporters of "Nine is Fine" are misleading residents by claiming that approving it on Tuesday would mean better representation.

Under city law, the top 12 vote-getters in Tuesday's primary will advance to the Nov. 3 ballot. The top six vote-getters would win seats on council. Under the "Nine is Fine" proposed amendment to the Toledo charter, only the top six vote-getters would be on the Nov. 3 ballot, and only three would be elected. They'd serve two years rather than four-year terms.

At the end of those two years, their at-large seats would be converted to "super-district" seats, each made up of two council districts and new elections would be held, resulting in a council of six district councilmen and three super-district councilmen.