Minutes - Charter Commission - 10/17/2019

Home

for general elections and vacancy special elections held on the date of the general election. He stated State law does not require primaries and the benefit of eliminating primaries is to reduce staff time and cost. Commissioner Bendtsen asked if the purpose of a primary is to reduce the field of candidates to two. City Attorney Langel responded that is correct and for most elections, a primary is not necessary and it is difficult to get people out to vote. Chairperson Field stated a primary held under Option 2 wouldn't have an additional cost because there would already be an election occurring. City Attorney Langel stated it would be extremely rare that a primary would occur on a general election date. Commissioner Anderson asked how this would reduce costs. City Clerk Thieling stated that Ramsey would never have to have a primary for municipal elections and would omit early filing, reducing time and cost. Commissioner Deemer stated that having a primary in Ramsey is a newer thing and Ramsey has only had it for the last few years. City Attorney Langel pointed out that what the Commission decides on Section 4.1 will determine what happens in Section 4.2 Chairperson Field preferred to review all the sections and options before voting to avoid having to reverse a vote. Commissioner Anderson stated that other entities are having primary elections and it would be confusing if parts of Ramsey had a primary and others did not. Chairperson Field stated that only municipal elections are under the Charter Commission's purview and cannot take into account what the County or School Boards do. Commissioner Leistico stated she would like to get an opinion from every Commissioner on this issue before moving on to see if there was a general consensus among the Commission. Commissioner Anderson asked if the County and the School Board had primary elections, who would run it, and if the City would be involved. City Clerk Thieling stated that Anoka County Elections handles Anoka -Hennepin elections and Elk River runs their own. She stated that Ramsey would not be involved. Commissioner Sivertson asked what the benefits are of having the primary. Charter Commission/ October 17, 2019 Page 3 of 10