Government Overhaul Needed to Give Residents a Voice

To the Editor:

With all the problems we’ve faced in the township over the past several months, it’s time for a change in Galloway Township’s government, specifically, the way it is set up.

Right now, we have seven council members who are elected by the residents, but the residents have no say in who will be mayor and not every part of the township is represented equally, if at all.

What I’m proposing is a massive change in the way we set up government, a change that would put us more in line with how the rest of the municipalities in this area set up their governments.

I’m proposing the township be split up into four wards, with each ward electing its own representative. In order to get on the ballot, a candidate would have to collect 100 signatures from the residents of the ward that they represent. Council members representing wards would serve two-year terms.

In November, individual wards would vote for their representative to council. This would ensure that every part of the township is represented and it would take the interests of the parties out of the process because council members would seek the approval of the people in their ward, not their political party.

The council would still be a seven-person council, and the other three members would be elected by the township as a whole to serve three-year terms. Residents from the entire township would vote for two alternates, who can come from anywhere, and the mayor. Right now, the mayor is selected by the other members of council, but this would put the decision of who would be their leader back in the hands of the people.

Township council meetings would continue to take place the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, and either the mayor, the township manager or the council president—elected by other members of council—would run the meeting. The township manager would still be selected by members of council, and the manager would still run the township.

Everything else would remain the same, but citizens would have greater participation because they would be represented by their ward, and if someone was in there not doing what they were supposed to be doing, we could take them out after two years.

The only drawback after conferring with other municipalities is the fact that sometimes the system gets deadlocked because of differences in culture and ethnicity. But in Galloway, I don’t believe we would be caught up in the same situation.

There are a lot of people in Galloway who would like to participate in our government without joining a political group or being one of the “chosen ones.” This would allow the guy from Pinehurst or the woman from Smithville to put their hats into the ring and participate in our local government.

I believe it’s time to step out of the past and put a new form of government in place that would empower the people of Galloway and not that of a few chosen ones. Let’s look at a friendlier and a better form of government.

The first thing we need to do is get a resolution by the council authorizing a referendum vote by the public.

Come out to the council meetings and help make a change.

Richard Price

Galloway Township