Last fall, ChangeDecatur surveyed local governments all over Illinois and a handful of cities outside IL. We learned that Decatur was significantly under-represented. One way to measure representation is to divide the population by the number of elected council members. Of surveyed comparable IL cities, Decatur is least well represented. The number of citizens per council member was almost 13,000 versus an average of 8,900 for the comparison cities. Keep in mind that many of these cities, use aldermanic districts so that citizens have a single (sometimes two) council members that are focused on their community. We believe that Decatur needs districts and more council members. Here is the survey:
Survey of Representation and Forms of Government - November 2007
Also note that Decatur is at the low end of the range in Council fees and is one of very few cities that elects the entire council at large (East St. Louis is another.)
Comments