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assured r~.presentation; (2) Councilmembers will be able to have closer contact with their <br />constituents and be more responsive to their needs, thereby being more account,qble to the people <br />who elected them; (3) The voter [s more likely to have personal k~. owledge about the candidate <br />seeldng office and thereby wiil more likely make an intelligent choice; and (4) The campai~ <br />costs to a council candidate are lower. <br /> <br />Motion Carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Peterson, Commissioners Donovan, Keifer, <br />Anderson, Spain-Brist, and Vogt. Voting No: None. <br /> <br />Case #3: Primary. Election <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman stated thai~ the Charter Commission has discussed the creation of <br />primary systems in the past. A primary election discussion also took place during the meeting of <br />January 28, 1999. It wu the consensus of the Charter Commission to continue., to study the <br />possibility of instituting a pnmar./election for the City o£Rarnsey. <br /> <br />Commissioner Keller referred to discussion that had taken place during the last Cornm/ssion <br />meeting which stated that in the past, the City ha~ had I0-12 running for orifice at one time. <br />Basically, it splits up the vote. During the last election where five people were running for two <br />council seats, the top two people received only 2~5% of the vote. <br /> <br />Comm/ssioner Anderson stated that she thinks pr'h-nary elections makes a lot of sense. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich noted that the Council could initiate the prS.mazy election themselves <br />without any changes to the Charter. <br /> <br />Councilmember Hendrflcsen questioned what would happen if a special election was needed. <br /> <br />Cit~/Administrator Non-nan replied that if the person resigned in' the fa-st year there would be a <br />special election to fill the position, and then they would hold another election during the standard <br />election. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich noted that if there are two or more years left on a term they would have <br />to have a special election. <br /> <br />Chairperson Peterson questioned what would happen if there were two seats open. <br /> <br />City Administrator Nor-man e×plained if there were two seats vacant, four candidates would: .: <br />move on to the general election, evo for each open seat. -" <br /> <br />Motion by Commissioner Kei£er, seconded by Commissioner Spain-Bfist, to request that City <br />Council look into implementing primm-y elections When there are more than two seats open for <br />office by the election year 2000. <br /> <br />Charter Commission/September 23, 1999 <br /> Page 5 o1'7 <br /> <br /> <br />