Do You Know Who Your Commissioner Is?

Recent arrivals to the Town of Oriental sometimes ask: "who is my commissioner?"

Good question. The short answer is: "you don't have one."

One of the consequences of the fact that we elect all of our Town Commissioners at large is that no commissioner represents any particular part of Town. You can't, for example, call Commissioner Jones and say, "there is a pothole on my street that needs repair" and be confident that Commissioner Jones will look into it because he represents your district.

Our system of government, in other words, is not inherently responsive to citizen concerns.

This situation has been exacerbated in recent years by the Town Board's refusal to engage in exchanges of information with citizens at public meetings. Not only does this show a lack of respect for the public, it frequently deprives the Town Board of insights and information it needs in order to do its job.

There is a better way.

North Carolina General Statutes allow towns to modify their charters by ordinance. Such ordinances must pick from a menu of choices, and may allow a referendum on each change made.

One of the choices is to elect commissioners from districts, or a mix of commissioners from districts and at large.

I recommend a mix of three commissioners elected from districts representing equal numbers of residents plus two elected at large.

That way, we would each know who our commissioner is.