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OBSERVATIONS
April 29, 2021 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
Delayed Census wreaking havoc
for this year's municipal elections
Will Smithfield hold a Town Council election this November? Who will make that decision?
At this point, we lack answers to both of those questions.
Town Manager Mike Scott brought up the issue during last Thursday's Town Council budget session. Because U.S. Census data for municipalities won't be released till later this year, towns like Smithfield that elect council members by districts won't have time to adjust those boundaries based on the latest population numbers before the filing period for candidates opens this July.
As a result, Smithfield has the option of either holding this year's elections based on existing districts or postponing the voting till next year. That second option would give four Town Council members whose four-year terms are up for election an extra year in office.
Town Manager Scott said his preference would be to hold the election this year as scheduled --- without redrawing the district boundaries. He said the N.C. League of Municipalities would like to know Smithfield's preference before it asks the N.C. General Assembly to amend state law to accommodate this year's predicament.
No consensus emerged from Thursday's discussion among council members, so they agreed to leave it entirely up to the Legislature to fix the problem.
But an Associated Press story published last week reported that key leaders of the General Assembly prefer leaving the matter up to the cities and towns to proceed as they see fit. "There's not been a consensus about what the right approach is because different areas want different things," said House Speaker Tim Moore.
So for now, four of our council members are in limbo regarding their political futures. District seats up for election this year are presently held by David Barbour of West Smithfield, Marlon Lee of East Smithfield, Travis Scott of North Smithfield, and David Stevens of South Smithfield.
The other three council members were elected by all the town's voters two years ago to four-year terms: John Dunn (mayor pro tem), Steve Rabil, and Roger Wood.
Meanwhile, Census numbers released this week for the states will give North Carolina an additional member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives --- to be elected in 2022. If that's known at this time, why can't we get the population breakdowns for the towns?
I may have used a similar photo of this site last spring, but it's worth repeating this impressive showing of purple iris at the intersection of Chestnut Drive and Maplewood in South Smithfield. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I dare say this spring's bloomings of flowers and trees around town weren't as spectacular this season.
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