Who should represent your interests on the Austin City Council? Currently Austin City Government consists of a Mayor and seven Council Members elected in at-large citywide elections. The City Council then appoints a City Manager. A Charter Revision Committee is currently considering a plan that would change both the size of the City Council and the way members get elected.

Wednesday night (September 26) the Charter Revision Committee, formed to consider these changes, meets at the Conley-Guerrero Senior Activity Center. J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director and Director of Litigation for Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C. and a Voting Rights Act expert makes the main presentation. Hebert was involved in City of Austin annexation issues in the late 90s and in the challenge to the 2003 congressional re-redistricting plan. The committee meeting also wants to hear from the general public after Hebert's presentation.

What is under early discussion is the change from at-large elections to a single-member district system. With this system the city would be divided into districts and council members would be elected from each district. The idea is that a district-based council system would better represent the interests of individual neighborhoods and residents.

An Austin American-Statesman article by Sarah Coppola -- A district-based Austin City Council up for debate again -- discusses some of the specifics under consideration as well as potential problems with getting voters to rally behind this change. Austin voters shot down similar attempts to move to district-based elections several times over the past 30 years or so. In the City Beat blog Coppola shares some of the voice mail and email received in response to her article -- both for and against the district idea.

AustinCityWatch weighs in with a possible variation and lists some recent neighborhood-related issues (such as the on-going Northcross/Wal-Mart issue) that might have benefitted from such a system. The Daily Texan describes how other large Texas cities elect their city government compared to how Austin does it. They take a look at some of the pros and cons of the single-member system.

What do you think? Does the idea repel or appeal to you? Or, is the whole thing just a big ol' who cares? yawner for you?