Agenda - Council - 09/13/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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of instituting primary, election for the City of Ramsey. Also discussed during 1999, number of the Council seats for a City Council. It was also the consensus of the'!ich:~/!:~, Commission to continue discussion of the number of elected representatives to the R~ey --, , ember Henafiksen tared t at we there wa thee cue ,,~?:?'i counci~m ' s h h n s is sion.. :'ab6"Ut cnangi:ng~;the Mayor's term to four years he was opposed because he did not like th~-,ii~dea of:having~i~e members elected at the same time and serving for four years. For that'.he rea~'~: he feels ther4~i¢ili;i.: a need to go to a seven member Council to rectify past mistakes, i:~::~ggeste/i!!allowing of time to make the changes otherwise there may be a lot of q~tl~nS~asiito, why and when the changes were made. In regard to the Ward system, he felt thatl!'t:~hould be ~he last th/ng the City would change. He explained that at the time he was oppos~g~e extenaon of the Mayor's term, he was in favor of the Ward system, but after servinff~'i:.~e Councii'~':'.questions if the Ward system is appropriate. ~?,?? ~:i??_~:~,, ~ ~i ,~:: Chairperson Kieffer stated that he favors a Ward system Wher~i:~e Councilmembers from wards and at large so that there are no specml ~nterests. %~:i4~7%~, ~??,~¥ Councilmember Hendriksen replied,~{"'Would work as long as the '~'~i<!ii~:-i~<~';uncilmembers Councilmember Connolly statUe"that sh?~inks it is~(~e:~afl.the majority of the Council be elected every two years. ~'~','~'~ .......... Commissioner HenkeStated that she would¢ii~:'~:'~%vor of a seVen mm, er Council rather than a Ward system beehSe:she::feels that the W~!'System makes a Councilmember accountable to only a portion3f:the City ;h fi r than a City ha~S'~,whd:le. Commi~s/'Oner Childs stat~::that a seven meffib'~'Council is not out of line with surrounding Councilmember C0nn0ily stated that she ~ould also like to see a seven member Council. ,-:!'~;:::j !;:':~'~;~ii~ci~ember Hendri~3n stat3d that he thinks they need to complete these changes in steps. He suggeSt;instituting ih~::m6~benig-n of these changes and then make some progression from there. Ad~i~'~:two more~bers to the Council does not have a impact on how peoPle are elected and if~:a~:'.Ward sv~t~m were to implemented with a five member Council then .the entire Ward system ~6~d have to be redone if they were to change to a seven member Council. Councilmemb~?Anderson stated that she would tike to take care of the Pr/mary Election first so :~at.~:.,~ ~: :.:' :, the~.,.:~; :~:~final~: :~.~ dandidates are down to a manageable number. Co~d~ember Zimmerman replied that a Pr/ma, Election discourages some people from filing aad'iri~a,~ small city like Ramsev,, they want as many people to ~ign up as possible. -94- City Council/August 22, 2000 Page 2 of 3