Wolf letter: Boise City Council

In Boise we have an unhealthy concentration of power. Of the six council members three live in what can be considered the North End. Another lives just south of downtown. Another I cannot determine the address. Yet from what I can determine only one lives, outside of what can be considered the North End sphere of influence, in West Boise.

It is time to balance power across the whole city and the best way to do this is with geographic wards based on population. Since we have six council members we ought to have six wards, each with its own resident council person.

The benefits are:

Local representation for each geographic area of Boise;

Voting districts are smaller;

Ward council people would provide the necessary diversity of thought that is currently missing;

Greater accountability to the citizens in each ward;

Eliminates the current concentration of power;

Less costly for council members to run for office, thus opening up the field to lessor-known individuals;

It is time to shake up and distribute the current concentrated established power base; and

We might not be forced to have and pay for yet another useless trash can taking up space in my garage.

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Wolf letter: Boise City Council."