Minutes - Charter Commission - 11/17/1994

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City Administrator Schroeder stated he looked at the 1990 election. Five persons were running for Council, with the winners receiving 33.4% and 24.8% of the vote. If we had a primary, there would have been four candidates running as the fifth person, with 13% of the votes, would have been out. Commission Spain-Brist arrived. 0/~_ 0~ ~¢0..~¢ Chairperson Steffen inquiredjf~Seople see this as a concern; with respect to the idea you should have some kind of a4~ol-a-fi~if you are going to be elected. The issue appears to be, should we have a primary? Commissioner Donovan inquired how much burden it would place on a candidate if they would have to mn in two campaigns. He suspected the turn-out for the primary election would be dismal. He inquired if any candidate expressed it being difficult to "get their name out" to the public. Mr. Schroeder stated that a couple of things he noticed 1) if you are running for office and you have a busy schedule, you are at a disadvantage. The folks who spent a lot of time campaigning had a lot of time to do so; and 2) the new people in town did not register. You have a higher likelihood of getting an inane candidate in the general election. Chairperson Steffen stated there were eight candidates for Council and three for Mayor. That could have been affected by the third person's votes. He added that one of the things we talked about was expense. Discussion ensued regarding surveying candidates about the electoral process. Commissioner Nelson suggested drawing up a list of questions and sending them out to candidates. He also suggested having some of the candidates appear at the Charter meeting to discuss the process. Commissioner Donovan suggested formulating a paper survey and then asking them if they would consider coming to the Charter Commission meeting to share their thoughts on the process. Commissioner Marn stated she like the idea of asking them if they would be interested in sharing at the Charter meeting. Following are a list of questions the Charter Commission recommended asking the candidates: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) How time-consuming was the campaign? How costly was it to campaign? Would changing to a ward system be a campaign benefit? Did you have difficulty reaching the entire City? Would you mn for office again? What percent of the vote do you think should provide a winner? (unless that should be an oral question instead.) How much of the City did you "hit" door to door? How much of the City did you "hit" with flyers? What was the calendar duration of the time you spent campaigning (one week, five weeks, etc.)? Would you favor a local primary election? Do you feel the length of the Mayoral term should be changed? Charter Commission/November 17, 1994 Page 2 of 6