Critics of Issue 6’s proposed charter contend that the 11 council members, none of whom is at large, would hinder regionalism by making the county more parochial. County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, representing Issue 5, said the 11 districts would create competition rather than collaboration.
JONES: Those ward councilmen and councilwomen will soon be butting heads over who gets an economic development project, which community-based organization gets a county grant….
WCPN’s Dan Moulthrop, who moderated the debate, asked Issue-6 backer and Parma Heights mayor Martin Zanotti why some of the council districts look engineered to satisfy certain constituencies, assuring strong black majorities in several districts and potential Republican victories in a few. Zanotti says that diversity was the point.
ZANOTTI: I don’t think we’d run from that. I think that’s the right way to do it. You have demographics in the county. If you’re going to draw districts, you should make sure that the districts represent those demographics.
Some opponents of Issue 6 have expressed the fear that the new structure would hurt the black community which makes up nearly 30 percent of Cuyahoga County’s population.