An idea is floating around San Diego city hall to ad more council seats to break tie-votes and to give residents more representation. Adding a ninth council seat was discussed and rejected two years ago when city officials first explored the idea of a strong mayor form of government. KPBS Reporter Amita Sharma has more.
Under the new strong mayor form of government, the mayor no longer has a vote on the council. That means there are an even number of council members with no one left to break a tie. City Attorney Mike Aguirre is suggesting adding at least one more council seat to avoid a deadlock on critical issues facing San Diego.
Mesa College political science professor Carl Luna calls the idea is a good one.
Luna: "I think we have too small a government. We fought a revolution for taxation without representation but we tend to be terribly underrepresented. San Diego has eight, used to have nine members on the city council we had that same number of people when we were a city half our size, we'll have that same number of people when we're a city double our size."
Adding another council seat would require the city to redraw its district boundaries and hold an election for the new seat in 2008. Amita Sharma, KPBS News.
