I am writing this letter in support of the shorter City Council terms that will be on the ballot April 5. There are several reasons for this.

First, the current length of City Council terms creates the very disparity that everyone as Ames residents has agreed is destructive as a part of the “One Community” concept. One set of residents has the opportunity to run for the City Council and effect change much more than the shorter-term residents do because of the lengths of their stays in Ames. One set of residents is able to lobby the City Council more easily because no one on the council is from the short-term set of residents, and the council can choose to simply wait the short-term residents out.

Changing the terms to two years would be a great step in fixing this disparity. City government would be less able to wait short-term residents out, as we would be able to vote in more elections. The city government would become more accountable for its actions that affect more than half the population of Ames. Secondly, short-term residents could actually run for the City Council and represent that segment of the population. In short, this widens the representation to more accurately reflect the population of Ames and makes the city government more accountable for everyone.

Another concern was that the City Council members would not have enough time to learn their jobs. I would counter that with the fact that state representatives have two years to learn the state governing process, and that system seems to work well.

For all of these reasons and more, I encourage everyone to “Vote for 2” on April 5.

Louis Kishkunas

Junior

Political Science