Changes proposed to Wake Commissioner elections
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A new bill introduced in the state Senate could drastically shake up the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
Republican Sen. Chad Barefoot wants to change the way voters in Wake County elect board members.
Right now, every voter in the county votes for every board member on the seven-person commission. Barefoot says that stacks the Board with Raleigh residents. To change that, Barefoot's bill would require one board member from each of the city's districts. It would also increase the number of commissioners from seven to nine.
"I represent most of the towns in Wake County that are fast growing, thriving towns," said Barefoot, "and they have no seat at the board that determines how state policy is enacted in this county."
Barefoot says the existing way of electing county officials isn't designed for a growing county the size of Wake.
"The concern," he said, "is that when you represent more people than the governor of the state of Delaware, it's not a local office anymore. Being able to voice the concerns for the transportation needs of eastern Wake County, and southern Wake County and even the health needs of areas. It's going to get harder and harder if those people are from Raleigh."
Critics, however, see Barefoot's bill, not as an attempt at better government, but as a naked power grab.
Wake County mother Lynn Edmonds said Senate Bill 181 "dismisses the will of the people."
"The vote was democratic and it was a fair election," Edmonds said, "and now that they don't like the results, they're trying to change the rules. That's cheating."
Retired Wake County teacher Barbara Vandenbergh agrees.
"I am so disappointed that the legislature feels that they can bully us and turn around elections because they want to win," said Vandenbergh.
Barefoot says politics played no role in his bill but that's something his colleague from Durham County, Democratic Sen. Floyd McKissick, says he doesn't buy.
"What he's doing is overcoming the will of the voters," said McKissick. "If you look back over 20 years, some years, Republicans have been in charge of the county commission. Other years, Democrats have been in charge. They don't want it to go back and forth. They want to guarantee a Republican majority through the rest of this decade. This bill would pretty much guarantee that of the nine commissioners, five would be Republican, four would be Democrats."
