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-4- <br /> <br />Chairperson Kiefer stated that in the process of deciding whether the Commission should put this <br />issue to the residents, statistics were gathered and pros and cons were researched. <br /> <br />Commissioner Childs reported that in I996, the League of Minnesota Cities surveyed a number <br />of charter cities asldng them to provide information regarding government size and election <br />process (wards, pr/mar/es, etc.). He spoke with the League and this survey is current. Some <br />cities had larger councils (e.g. Minneapolis with 13, St. Paul with 7 and Red Wing with. 9). Red <br />Wing has a question for their ballot to reduce their number from nine to seven. They do not have <br />a voting mayor, their population is 16,000 and they feel that a five-member council would be toc) <br />small. Mr. Childs reported that 70% of the 96 charter cities over all have councils that are larger <br />than Ramsey's, 35% have six members plus the mayor, 15% have five councilmembers, 30% <br />have councils the same size as Ramsey's current Council. He stated that he called several of <br />these cities and none had any negative remarks relating to their number of Council. <br /> <br />Chairperson Kiefer stated that the Commission surveyed past MayOr and Council candidates and <br />~current Councilmembers for thoughts on increasing the number of members. It was felt that <br />increasing the number of Councilmembers was that some of the workload could be more evenly <br />distributed. The cost for the City would be increased by about $9,000 per year. <br /> <br />Commissioner Childs stated that the burden of distributing decision-making was also mentioned. <br />It appeared that six was a comfortable number. <br /> <br />Chairperson Kiefer added that it could also prevent like-minded individuals on the Council. <br /> <br />Mr. Norman stated that the two other major issues discussed by Charter were wards and <br />primaries. A joint meeting between the City Council and Charter was held. It was consensus of <br />both that of the three major issues, this item (number of Councilmembers) is probably the least <br />amount of debate and least amount of disagreement between the Council and Charter. <br /> <br />Commissioner Childs stated that 'Commissioner Donovan had mentioned that going to.a six <br />member Council may nullify the reason to go to a primary election. <br /> <br />Patti Kurak, 15001 Sunfish Lake Boulevard NW, Ramsey, stated she is running for City .Council. <br />She mentioned the ward system and noted that no one on Council is fi.om the sewer and water. <br />area and she felt that was an imbalance. There are quite a few people in that area and the. <br />interests of the people are definitely different. She suggested it would be well worth it'to have a <br />ward system. She did not know What it takes to implement a ward system, but felt it is necessary <br />to do it and to do it soon. <br /> <br />Mr. Norman informed Ms. Kurak that the process would start with the Charter Commission. He <br />added there is a window of opportunity to put such a question on the ballot. You can only create <br />wards in a four-year out of a 10-year period. He added that Ms. Kurak is raising some policy <br />issues and these questions should be posed to the Charter Commission. This Commission has to <br />forward it to the City CoUncil or the City Council can do it on their own. <br /> <br />Charter Commission Public Informational Meeting/October 4, 2000 <br /> Page 2 of 4 <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br /> <br />