Agenda - Council - 01/23/2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-8- Commissioner Donovan stated ti'mt he understands how overwhelming this can be /bt the new members. Ti'tis does not mean that we are not satisfied with our current form of goverm~mnt. He felt that probably the number of Councih-nembers is the easiest question to consider. It is a big step and the Chatter Commission has taken a more reactive role in the past. it's true we have never reached a closure on this because we are not sure this would give us a better government. He noted it is difficult for people running for office to effectively campaig'n in Ramsey and reach everyone. If we did go to a.ward system, it would give campaigners a chance to hold down tb_e cost and also get to all the people in their ward. We have talked a lot about each of these issues. Commissioner Childs inquired if that "closure" would come ~ro1Tl a vote and will we ever get to closure in this ~oup. Chairperson Kiefer stated we are not voting for any one of these tl~me things. All we are voting on is to put this in front of the voters. We will give the citizens the chance to voice their opinion. Councilmember Cmmolly stated that when-it was on the ballot to add two years to the Mayor term, it sounded great. With that, however, you will have less of a turn over - the majority of the Council should be up every two years. She wondered if anyone had given any thought to how that would work. Commissioner Childs agreed that Councilmember Cormolly was fight. He wondered if adding more Council would make a difference. Con,missioner LaMere asked that the discussion relate to only one of the issues at a time. Councilmember Hendriksen felt that extending the Mayor term to four years was a mistake because there is not a rna./ority tm'nover. We should look at a way to make sure every two years the citizens have a right to vote approval or disapproval. In the past, he has always seen exact language prepared to be placed on the ballot and he wondered if there has been any language drafted. Chairperson Kiefer answered no, not yet. Councilmember Hendriksen asked if there will be exact language available for Council. Chairperson Kiefer responded that the Corm-nission has to determine if there is any interest in moving forward, then we have to prepare the exact language. Mi'. Goodrich pointed out that the City can also have an advisory election. We have never had that before but we could start the ballot question by saying "Shall we...". There has been some discussion of why type of question it shotdd be. Chairperson Kiefer asked how to provide enough infom~ation to the public. He agreed that the timing seems right but if we do it too quickly, we may find ourselves undoing it in the furore. Commissioner Henk. e commented on the new Mayor te~'m being loth' years. Charter Commission -September 6, 2000 Page 4 of 12 I I I I i I I i I I I I I I I I I I