Upcoming Election, Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission

I received my sample ballot in the mail today for the March 15 Florida presidential preference primary and Gainesville local elections from my supervisor of elections.  There's not very much on the ballot: besides the Republican or Democratic presidential primaries, Gainesville only offers its mayoral race and District 4 in its city commission...and since I'm not in District 4, I can't vote in that race (although one of the contestants, Jim Konish, is a former classmate of mine from Nova High School).  It's O.K. that I can't vote for someone else's district...that's the way it should be in representative government.  I think Gainesville has worked out its city commission structure quite well: there is the mayor (who also gets to participate as a voting commissioner), two at-large seats (the whole city gets to vote on them), and four districted seats.  I reside in District 2, currently represented by Todd Chase.  Since the various districts have their own particular demographics, issues, and political leanings, it seems more likely as a result to have a city commission that better represents the diverse interests of its population.  One big problem: unless there is a bigger race on the ballot, such as the presidential campaign or statewide offices like U.S. Senate or governor, the voter participation in my local elections is abysmally low.  Take the last two elections here, for a commission seat and the runoff election: 12% turnout in both! 

There is also an Alachua County Commission, which is comprised of five seats each officially representing a drawn-out district for the entire county, of which Gainesville dominates with its much larger population than the outlying communities.  Unlike the case with the Gainesville City Commission, though, each county commissioner is elected at-large from the entire county, not just from the district he or she is supposed to represent.  Which doesn't make very much sense to me.  I live in Alachua County District 5, which is supposedly the district of Charles Chesnut IV.  But this commissioner was elected county-wide...doesn't that defeat the concept of representation by districts?  It would be as if the entire United States got to vote on who would be Florida's governor...wait a minute, that might not such a bad idea, considering the individual we've been stuck with for the past few years...