Mount Pleasant Trustee Wants to Explore Numbered Seats

Mount Pleasant trustees are elected and serve at large, which means they don't represent any one area of the village.

At the July 11 board meeting, Trustee Karen Albeck said she would like trustees to explore the possibility of numbered seats.

"I think it's important that the public have a choice of candidates," she said. "Trustees would still be elected and serve at large, but candidates would have the opportunity to run against a particular candidate."

Albeck said she supports village residents approving the change through a referendum. Since there are not any November elections this year, the earliest the issue could be vetted by voters would be the April 2012 elections, effective for the spring 2013 election.

Albeck finished her comments by asking that the idea be included on the agenda of a future board meeting.

We called the remaining trustees and Village President Carolyn Milkie to find out where they stand with the idea.

Trustee Harry Manning was available right away said the idea does not hold a lot of appeal for him.

"It's just not critical to anything we're doing," he explained. "I've read about communities who made the change to numbered seats and now they're exploring going back to at-large because of the way the election atmosphere changed."

Both John Hewitt and Gary Feest also feel the change is unnecessary, but they also say residents should decide through a referendum before any such change goes through.

The neighboring villages of Caledonia and Sturtevant also elect trustees at large.

What do you think of having numbered seats for trustee elections?