John Boyle

jboyle@citizen-times.com

It is, I must admit, a dazzling image.

In the wake of Sen. Tom Apodaca's proposal last week to create a district system for Asheville City Council elections — without garnering input from council itself or most of Asheville's voters — I can't help but picture the Henderson County Republican, who's in his final year in office, riding away from our fair mountain town on his white steed, tipping back his 10-gallon hat, wiping his face with a bandana, and then giving the state's most liberal city the one-fingered salute.

Sure, that's probably unfair, but you've got to admit the two parties have had, politely put, a tumultuous relationship. Apodaca has made clear his feelings that North Carolina's cities held too much sway in the past and the state needed a correction.

And city leaders and the Democratic state representatives of Buncombe County have made it equally clear that they believe Raleigh has overstepped its bounds in micro-managing cities, forcing district elections in a couple of them and taking steps such as removing control over their airports, in the case of Charlotte and Asheville.

But lost in the flap is this: District elections make a lot of sense. Sure, Asheville Council members, who look like they may be getting double-bunked or triple-bunked in one case, will disagree, but the plan does come with positives.

In a text message to me, Apodaca said he has not finished the bill nor the district map, and that it will probably be Tuesday when he does.

Last week, Democratic state legislators shared a map they said came from Apodaca, and it showed several council incumbents would end up facing each other in an election (double-bunking), including Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and Cecil Bothwell in a northern District 3; and Brian Haynes, Julie Mayfield and Gordon Smith in a western and central District 2 (triple bunking).

One of Asheville's problems is that its council members tend to come from just a few parts of town, with heavy representation for North and West Asheville and generally lighter or no representation for east and south. The south in the particular, which has a booming population and huge retail and commercial growth, has seen few council members in recent decades.

Apodaca said South Asheville business owners in particular lamented the lack of representation from their neck of the woods.

As Citizen-Times reporter Joel Burgess noted in an article last week, since 2005, there have been six South Asheville council candidates, and no winners. Meanwhile, in North Asheville, 29 candidates have run, with five winners.

If I lived in South Asheville, I probably would feel like my voice isn't getting heard.

But of course all of this is all wrapped up in politics, with Asheville drifting further left in recent years and having a council that is not only all Democrat but all liberal Democrat, and in some cases, uber-liberal. Apodaca says he's not pushing for Republicans to get elected, he'd just be happy to see some moderate Democrats have a chance at getting elected.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told me she suspected the Apodaca move was coming, but she and her colleagues are still not happy about it.

"I think Asheville is a little bit at the end of its rope with local legislation being crammed down its throat," Manheimer said. "We've been the unfortunate recipient of a ton of it. We're ready to be done with this experience."

She also noted that Apodaca, who represents a southern sliver of Buncombe County along with Henderson and some of Transylvania, is the only member of "our local delegation that is willing to consider legislation we’re unanimously opposed to."

The mayor also said she's heard from constituents loud and clear that "this should be a local decision and should not be something Raleigh mandates.

"There is a state law that allows cities to impose districts if they choose," Manheimer said. "That's been a discussion from time to time, but it's never risen to any level of (action)."

I suspect Apodaca would acknowledge there is a mechanism for cities to enact district elections. But I also suspect he would point out that seven Democrats are probably not going to instigate a system that could erode their own power, and they've had decades to do it.

LIke any political system, district elections come with pluses and minuses, says Western Carolina University political science Professor Chris Cooper.

"It makes sense for geographic representation and for constituents knowing who their representative is," Cooper said. "We know in an at-large system, citizens are less likely to know who their representative is. And obviously, there are issues specific to certain parts of town in every city. So it’s not an unreasonable proposal; at the same time, it is unusual to have a state legislator weighing in on the specifics of a city district lines."

That is indeed part of the rub here. On the heels of Asheville ceding control of its airport and fighting to keep its water system because of General Assembly action, its elected representatives aren't big fans of Raleigh eroding the city's power and being reminded repeatedly that the state has ultimate authority over them.

Also on the downside, district elections can create representatives who are more interested in only their part of town than the town as a whole, sometimes voting against proposals that don't benefit them. Also, Cooper notes that at-large elections tend to produce more female representatives.

Manheimer said she thinks council will wait to see the bill and the maps that come out this week before deciding what to do. She mentioned Greensboro, where the city council challenged a similar plan in federal court, winning a temporary injunction against its implementation, as one possible route of challenge.

Part of Greensboro's argument is they're not being allowed to use the state statute that grants them authority to implement district elections.

"I think it would be wise if Apodaca were to insist on filing a bill that allows for a local decision on the districts he draws — either up or down on his districts, or or some provision that allows us to draw the districts," Manheimer said.

Whatever your opinion on all this, rest assured it's going to happen, just like how the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners got district elections after former State Rep. Tim Moffitt, now a board member himself, pushed that through the legislature. It transformed an all-Democratic board into a more representative one with three Republicans and four Democrats.

I get the feeling that Apodaca doesn't much care what the local Democratic state representatives think, and with a super-majority in both houses of the legislature, he he doesn't have to. As chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, Apodaca, who's ending his legislative career this year after a 14-year run, can be a steamroller when he wants to.

"He's a powerful senator, and he's powerful for a reason: he gets what he wants," Cooper said. "He’s never been concerned with how things (go over), but whether they get passed."

Brace yourself, Asheville. District elections are going to happen, and you're not going to have much say over what the districts look like.

Apodaca is patting his horse's rump and winking at you.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com

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