County commission could trim its ranks at Monday meeting

A pair of votes by the Warren County Commission this Monday as to the size and means of electing commissioners could have an immediate impact in the upcoming elections this spring.

“If something is decided as far as a change, it will go into effect for the upcoming elections,” said Election Administrator Donna Yates. “We would send out letters to potential candidates who already have qualifying papers, instructing them on what they need to do under any new system. But, right now, there aren’t a lot of petitions out and even fewer have been returned so far.”

At question tomorrow night will be two resolutions. The first asks the county commission to cut its size from 24 to 12 members. The commission has overwhelmingly voted down such resolutions in the past.

Presently two commissioners are elected from each of the county’s 12 districts, with the top two vote-getters taking office. Should the commission vote to cut their membership, the impact to the election qualifying cycle would not be greatly affected, although it would cut the number of people moving on to the August general election from the party primaries this May from two to one.

The other resolution asks commissioners to designate A and B seats in each district. The resolution would leave the commission size at 24 but it would require candidates to decide which seat they are seeking in their district. People qualifying for the election would have to declare on their papers which seat they want to run for.

“Even the two incumbents could decide to run against each other in a district seeing everyone would be free to choose seat A or B,” Yates said. “Those who already have papers out would just have to declare which seat they are seeking.”

Instead of the top two vote-getters overall in a district being elected, the A and B alternative would mean the top vote-getter in “A” would be elected and the top vote-getter in “B” would be elected. Supporters of the idea say it would hold both commissioners in each district more accountable.

As far as problems caused by passing either measure, Yates said she does not foresee any confusion seeing the commission races would be on each individual ballot as before, with voters casting their ballots for two separate seats in their district instead of just voting for their two favorite candidates in one race.

The county commission is scheduled to consider the resolutions when they meet in regular session Monday night at 6:30 p.m. at the county government building on Locust Street.