Council By Districts
Letter to the Editor
Detroit News, April 14, 2009

Wards foster accountability
Changing Detroit's City Council from an at-large to a district or ward system would be the single most important step to reinventing Detroit: ("Council wards could revive 'forgotten Detroit,' " April 2). Our at-large system means that no one on the City Council is held accountable. Council members routinely say Detroit's "strong mayor" form of government makes council districts unnecessary, since council members have no real power. If that's true, then we should disband the entire council and rely solely on the mayor. I need someone to be responsive to my neighborhood's needs, and to be held accountable. And politicians are held accountable through the ballot. Thomas E. Page, Detroit