There is currently an issue surrounding the efficiency of the municipal and county governments. Historically, both of these levels of government have been responsible for legislating what’s been left over or missed by the state legislature. These entities often choose to do so in their own manner – choosing to enact their own specific traffic laws, crimes, and etecetera.
This system once worked. Councilperson and Alderperson positions used to be filled with special vacancies occurring every once and a while. This most recent election has revealed that the current method of municipal governance is proving to be ineffective.
On February 8th, 2026, the Stapleton County Council voted to extract legislative authority from all three municipal governments. Such an action, which does not occur frequently, has been a part of a series of events that suggest that keeping municipal councils is not optimal.
A potential solution? The unicameralists in Congress are already working on a similar one for the State Legislature. The unicameralists want to reduce the number of seats available in Congress overall, so that the demand for such seats increases. The same concept can be applied to this issue. The total number of seats across all three municipalities needs to be reduced, but in a way that nearly guarantees the prevention of this issue in the future.
The State government needs to take action to revise the Inferior Governments Act to allow for the dissolution of municipal councils, and the County government needs to take action to facilitate this transition.
The County Council should take on the responsibilities of municipal governance, and thereforemust be restructured, with its seats being representative of each municipality. An ideal set-up could be having:
- three councilpersons from Redwood (as it is the most populous)
- two councilpersons from Arborfield
- two councilpersons from Prominence
- one councilperson from Hillview; and
- one councilperson from Greendale and Agartha.
This totals nine councilpersons, which may increase the amount of total county councilpersons as it stands now, but dissolves the remaining fifteen (or so) municipal councilperson positions.
Mayors would still be able to appoint their cabinet, but their relationship with their councilpersons are different. When there is a vacancy on the County Council, Mayors can appoint councilpersons (councilperson-delegates) to fill the vacancies (councilpersons from Hillview or Greendale & Agartha could caucus with a nearby city for the purposes of this procedure). Positions requiring nomination would be approved by the County Council, and various other duties traditionally afforded to municipal councils would be, in some way, disseminated amongst what’s left.
It is through this method that our municipal governments will survive.
Dr. Wright