FEDERALSBURG, Md. - The town council had a work session Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of changing their 'at-large' system to a two-district system.
In 200 years, the Federalsburg town council has never had a person of color on the board.
The two-district plan being proposed is color coordinated. The green district being predominately where white people live. And the yellow district being predominately were people of color live. After speaking with those in the community today they say its about time for representation.
Community members who live in the yellow district say they can somewhat breath a sigh of relief now that they are a step closer to possibly having representation on council. "It's been a long time coming and I think it's some thing we really need. It will set a role model for some of these kids around here," says Verna Bolden. "It's extremely important. No one of a different race can really speak on behalf of someone of a different race so therefore, it's very very important," says Oliver Greene.
Lawrence Dire, Town Manager of Federalsburg says they understand the lack of diversity on the council. He says, "It's an opportunity to ensure that there is representation from the district from folks who have not had representation on the council before."
However, some other community members feel a 4-district plan would be better. Roberta Butler says, "As far as it is, I'm happy that it's two. But as we begin to dig in to it, I believe that four would be a little bit better."
On Wednesday, there has been a legal challenge to the Federalsburg election system.
It's a lawsuit filed by the NAACP. It demands changes to the Caroline County community's 'at-large', staggered-term election system.
The complaint claims that system is keeping black people out of its municipal government. In court documents, they say, quote "the town's election practices and structure conspire with patterns of racial polarization in voting to empower Federalsburg's white majority to override and dilute the influence of black voters, suppress black candidacies, and deny black residents an equal opportunity to elect their chosen representatives."
The plaintiffs want the court to prohibit any future elections under the current system.
