Without people's consent, government has no just power
Published February 18, 2015
by Doug Clark, Off the Record, Greensboro News-Record, February 18, 2015.
Something important is happening in Greensboro.
You could feel it last Thursday when scores of people turned out on a bitterly cold, windy night to defend their city government. You could read it in their indignation and disbelief. You can sense it when newspapers in Charlotte and Asheville notice and speak out.
State Sen. Trudy Wade’s bill to dramatically restructure the Greensboro City Council has raised an unprecedented outcry.
It fails on its merits by severely reducing the voting power of every Greensboro resident. Worse, it fails in principle by seeking these changes for the benefit of a few without regard for the wishes of the many.
Wade has the backing of Senate leader Phil Berger, so her plan is assured of approval in that chamber. She has the power to pass her bill. She lacks the moral authority, a concept at the very heart of our democracy.
Thomas Jefferson addressed it in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Some of the speakers at last Thursday’s Guilford legislative delegation meeting referred to it when they cited our state constitution’s premise that “all government of right originates from the people (and) is founded upon their will only.”
In North Carolina, cities are political subdivisions of the state but traditionally have been granted latitude in choosing their own form of government. After careful deliberation and community dialogue, Greensboro set up its current council system more than three decades ago. Its combination of district and at-large council members guarantees that all parts of the city are represented and that every voter has a hand in choosing a majority.
Wade aims to replace that structure with seven district representatives and a nonvoting mayor, a balkanization of the city that diminishes the voting power of all residents. The people don’t want it.
Neither do House members, who are being pressured to go along with the Senate.
At stake is the very idea of self-determination. Do city residents have a voice in the formation of their own government, or should they be dictated to by a centralized state authority?
The Charlotte Observer noticed and, in an editorial this week, called Wade’s bill another among a lengthening list of state interventions in local affairs.
“From sales tax referendums to housing design standards to tree-cutting to billboards to the business privilege license tax, the House and Senate are filled with city council wannabes,” it said.
“Local decisions — including how we pass city laws and elect our own — are best left up to the community,” Asheville Citizen-Times Executive Editor Josh Awtry wrote.
Of course. That it’s a Republican legislature constantly exerting the power of big government over local matters is a supreme irony.
But this seems to be more about politics than principle anyway. Wade is trying to alter election outcomes, as the legislature did previously when it gerrymandered Guilford County commissioner and school board districts and reduced the number of at-large seats on those bodies.
This follows a pattern. The legislature has drawn its own election districts, as well as congressional districts, to minimize political competition. It predetermines outcomes by packing together high concentrations of Democratic voters in a few districts while assembling just enough Republican voters in other districts to guarantee GOP majorities. Most candidates run without opposition or with only nominal opponents.
Legislators are now trying to do the same thing to Guilford County and Greensboro.
For the most part, the legislature has gotten its way. Oh, Charlotte fought for its airport and hasn’t lost it yet. Asheville fought for its water system. Boone battled for zoning jurisdiction and won. Now it’s Greensboro’s turn.
The issue isn’t hard to understand. It’s basic to the American idea of self-government. That’s why there was a standing-room-only crowd that filled the City Council chamber and spilled into the hallway last week. The almost-universal message was: Let us decide for ourselves.
A legislature that ignores that cry, especially a legislature that was elected in largely rigged elections, can’t claim the moral authority to lead. It doesn’t represent the people; it rules over them. Government that acts without the consent of the governed has no just power and should be replaced.
February 18, 2015 at 2:20 pm
Richard Bunce says:
The State Legislature creates State Chartered Municipal Corporations. It has a responsibility to oversee their creations so they do not abuse the very limited powers they were given by the Legislature in Statute and their Municipal Charter. The municipalities have abused those limits for decades. I would prefer the Legislature stop the municipal abuse of power directly instead of indirectly by manipulating the Municipal Charter specified form of government details. With municipalities of very limited powers the potential of abuse by Mayor/Council are significantly reduced.
