Seven seats on Rocky Mount’s City Council, along with the City Manager and the Mayor, have a lot to say grace over. These leaders are responsible for decisions that affect our financial footing, our neighborhood stability, and the decisions that shape whether Rocky Mount is a place where families can thrive and businesses choose to invest.
Given such responsibility, I now believe voters should be able to vote for every Council seat. When the Council decisions affect the entire city, then all voters deserve a voice in selecting the people making them.
If council members only influenced their own Ward, they could live or die by that sword, accepted by some, rejected by others. But that’s not how our system works here. A single vote, from any seat, affects spending, economic development, safety, housing, and city-wide priorities in all seven Wards.
When I look at the low turnout in the October 7th election that triggered the Ward #3 run-off, I can’t help but grieve the moment.
Whether it is apathy causing low voter turnout, or the loss of hope in change, whatever the reason, the final outcome will affect the leadership on the Council, and that winner will share responsibility for Rocky Mount’s life. This is why the Ward #3 Run-Off matters to all of us.
That winner will join a Council making decisions in a moment of financial reckoning and fragile public trust. And we all live with the outcome, whether we had a vote in it or not.
I always have a book in hand and ideas jump off the pages that affect my writing on this blog. Recently, reading The Bee and the Acorn, Paula Wallace’s memoir as founder of The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), home to one of the finest preservation programs in the world, I came across a moment that seemed written for Rocky Mount.
Actor John Malkovich, speaking to a SCAD graduating class, reflected on the early days of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, which I am familiar with.
“Why did we succeed? Luck? Persistence? Stubbornness? Talent? Confidence? Training? Insanity?
Here’s what I would posit.
We succeeded because we fell in love with our work, respected each other’s talent, and cared deeply about watching that talent grow.”
Rocky Mount’s City Council could reinvent itself to mirror Malkovich’s prescription for success. I believe it is possible if we change the way the Council members are elected.
Tomorrow: Part 2
Main Street Rocky Mount 
I believe in prior posts I have said this almost exactly. It is not apathy but sheer frustration that has come upon the people of Rocky Mount. Battles have been fought in the past because taxation with literally no representation was happening and is happening to us. The monopoly of people on the board have been engineered to go this way with help from Raleigh. If we are not careful some day soon we will have things happening to us like is happening to places in the news such as Chicago- LA and other cities. We the people do NOT want this. I will be watching this movement with caution and interest as it grows
LikeLike