At-large council in Monticello better for everyone

To the Editor,

   The petition to change Monticello’s voting districts from ward to all at-large is something that makes sense considering the difficulty the city has had in filling vacancies when limited to only small geographic areas of the city for candidates. If this petition passes, vacancies can be filled by anyone within the city. it will give us more candidates to choose from who could give us better candidates for the job.

   Concern for the cost of the election shouldn’t be a problem, especially when the council voted to increase their pay significantly, claiming this might help attract better candidates in the future. Opening up the election of council persons to every eligible voter is exactly what every town in Jones County does, with Monticello being the only exception. Getting this accomplished will make a better representative city government, and I would ask people to vote for this when the election process for this comes up!

Thank you!

Steve Hanken

Monticello, Iowa