The report from the committee stated the option would cost nothing and would “increase the likelihood that the composition of the council more accurately reflects the city’s population.”

Garrity initially started looking into the at-large system during this own campaign to become a council member, and found the city changed from declared seats to at-large elections in 2009.

This, he explained, would benefit candidates from areas of the city with the most home-ownership, highest incomes and least ethnic diversity.

As of now, all of the sitting council members live on the east side of Main Street, though one was elected when they lived on the west side and moved after they obtained the position.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily a linear relationship between means and resources and your ability to represent people,” Garrity said. “I know there’s a lot of people who live in my neighborhood for example — the Woodruff neighborhood — that would be good representatives for the neighborhood but are discouraged from running because of the cost and time commitment.”

He explained that while running, he raised $10,000 as he worked to appeal to the entirety of Logan. Appealing to just the portion he would represent in a district, he explained, would require less funding and resources.

“It’s just different,” he said, “when you have to look your neighbors in the eye and tell them ‘I passed that.’”

Logan city has officially opposed the initiative. The Herald Journal reached out to each council member as well as the mayor for input on the topic. All but one council member responded.

“What problem are we trying to solve by changing our council structure? Is there a problem? There is a problem, and it is lack of participation by our citizens — not how we vote for representation on City Council,” said Council Member Mark Anderson. “In fact, it could make for less participation, especially for a diverse set of candidates.”

Though Garitty said he hasn’t found anything in his research that indicated districts would discourage participation, he also hasn’t found anything saying they would increase it.

“If Logan were much larger and had distinct areas of geographical interest, then I would be supportive of a Hybrid system,” Anderson said. “I don’t see how we could represent our current demographic in Logan any better than we have currently.”

Thomas Jensen, another sitting council member, also stated he doesn’t believe switching to districts would be a good change currently, though he thinks “as growth and change occur, voting districts might be the preferred choice in the future.”

“There was a time in the 1990-2010 period when most or all of the council came from the west side,” he said. “How did the city function then? It functioned about the same. It really depends on the quality of the candidates, not necessarily their geography.”

Mayor Holly Daines expressed her support of the city’s position.

“Every single council member cares about the entire city and makes great effort to make sure all the citizens are represented by their decisions,” she said. “Council members change over the years, but we’ve always had folks who lived in all areas of the city.”

She also mentioned possible concerns that each district may not be able to present a candidate who wants the position.

Another sitting council member — Amy Anderson — specified that she could speak to the matter not as a council member, but as a Logan citizen.

“As I reviewed the election systems across our state, I have come to see how a hybrid system would allow for those who strongly feel that the location of the candidate matters in how they represent the city to select a candidate with that criteria, but also allow for two at-large candidates who would bring another viewpoint to issues,” she said. “This may be the best path forward for a city like Logan that is growing.”

Still, she said council members should always consider the city at large and said “districting works best when addressing issues of under-representation of minority groups. In Logan, our diverse community is distributed across much of our city.”

Garrity talked about several of the arguments mentioned in the city’s official statement.

One point of contention is that district representation wouldn’t allow every citizen of Logan to vote for every council position.

“You don’t get to vote for every House representative in the U.S., and you don’t get to vote for every council member,” Garrity said. “That’s how most elections work, and the reason they do that is for representation.”

The city’s statement also says district elections disadvantage women.

“I know the study that they’re referencing,” Garrity said. “They found women were disadvantaged by — I think it was — .05%, and the highest benefactor were black men at 10% advantage, and I think there was a Latino advantage too, so I think what that does is it kind of conveniently dismisses some of the advantages in favor of a very slight disadvantage.”

While he said he respects and is grateful for each council member’s service, he also mentioned the incentive an elected official may have to support the system that got them elected.

Those interested in learning more about the initiative can contact Garrity at Keegan.Garrity@gmail.com.