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<br />have an election onthebi-:-annual Municipal election date. TheoretiCally, someone could resign <br />in'January2007,a,new member could be appointed and then be up for re-election iu2008. The <br />Charter ,Commission voted tb.atdown. Then Commissioner Deemer proposed that if there must '. <br />"be a: speCial election, thatit at least be held in Novetnber. TheCommissionsaidnoto that too. <br />.This would beafai!lyfare instance; It's never happened in Ramseyinthe25 years it has been a <br />Charter City. We now have aprimaryelection and wenow.,haveseven Councilmeinbers; <br />. '. therefore, these ate some housekeeping issues we have delved into. . In November, we had a <br />. discussion about cleaning this up and addressing our concerns'. These have all created a need for <br />change~' .' <br /> <br />....ChairLaMerecoIIiwented on the Ward system that came into'effe.ct in the last fewyear.s.making <br />a difference also. ..... . ..... '. .' . . . <br /> <br />'. :ConUnis~ioneiCleyeland commented'thatin doing some research intosorne other cities with <br />. .... Charters, it. appears that when a seat is up Jorre-election. and someone: vacates. that seat 120 days <br />. .or less before the November election, t~e: City does offer the ' seat immediately to the person <br />. when they are voted in. Other cities have had. primaries fora sp~ciaI election for. seats' that open <br />up. They have three weeks in which to notify the public that the' seat is open. It-has to be <br />published three times. ,They file for candidacy and if there are more than ,two candidates, .~ <br />primary will be held. . If the vacant seat was not up -for re-election and the candidacy has been <br />tiled for-three weeks notification and that candidate can be placed on the November b(illot <br /> <br />. Attorney'Goodrich stated with regard to . notification -' that the language states it shall. be <br />. published assoonasispracticabk . . . <br /> <br />. . <br /> <br />Commissioner Cleveland' felt the Commission should talk about and set specifics. She felt that. <br />three consecUtive publications was a good number for a seat~tisnot normally up for an <br />election in November. . <br /> <br />'. . Attorney Goodrich referred to the first paragraph where it says there. will be a special election. . If <br />a vacancy occurs in inid-Julyandit is for a seat that will be voted on inNovember-the 'seat <br />vacancy is said not to exist. If it is an at-large seatt the feeling was that this would be okay;, <br />howeyer, it was suggested that this might be too long a time for a ward not to be represented. He. · <br />. stated that the: Commission has laid out what it wants to do with that first sentence. Now we will. <br />. talk about the second sentence. ..' <br /> <br />COmmissioner Deemer stated we have a ward seat not up for election - maybe the at~large <br />Cotin,cilmember not up for an election be automatically appointed to that ward until the. election <br />is held. ' <br /> <br />,'Commissioner Cleveland talked' about the official notice and starting the' election process '..,.. <br />acknowledging the vacancy ;' <br /> <br />Commissioner Deemer stated that because of the time it takes:..:.. let's just leave it at November. <br />'. The argument against it would be if you are leaving a ward unrepresented for a lon~er period of <br />. time. . . <br /> <br />. Charter CommissionlFebruary 21, 2008 <br />P~ge'3 of6 . <br /> <br />-1"9:... <br />