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Darlene Milless, 14550 Ramsey Boulevard NW, Ramsey, questioned what the cost has been to <br />the City with all these petitions. <br /> <br />Councilmember Hendriksen stated that he really only had two comments. 1) to Commissioner <br />Childs - when you have a special election you only have a few people come out and the result is <br />not valid. He felt that when you had as many as 3,000 people come out for a single issue, the <br />only reason they are there is because a special election catches their interest. If the rest of the <br />City chooses not to vote, they are not interested. Sometimes other decisions get made and <br />because the numbers are bigger doesn't make it more valid. 2) In the past, the Charter has <br />placed alternatives on the ballot but voters did not feel they were reasonable and they voted it <br />down by a three to one margin. He stated he would be more than happy to participate in a pros <br />and cons on the cable channel. He feels it's great to have citizens be informed. <br /> <br />Mr. Manuel mentioned the talk about small numbers of people voting. He stated that they went <br />door to door in the urban area and of the people home, about 99% signed the petition. It's about <br />how Ramsey will grow - it's not anti-growth. This is just giving people the right to vote. He <br />added that he has never worked on something before that has had some overwhelming support. <br /> <br />Commissioner Donovan stated that he is concerned about lowering the number to 5%. That is a <br />small percentage to really change things dramatically. He stated he would be concerned about a <br />small group of people going out with a vendetta about something that may not be for the good of <br />the City. We trust our elected officials to do what we want and what's for the best. We are <br />trying to legislate everything by Charter amendments but not by our elected officials. <br /> <br />Mr. Manuel stated that we have smaller numbers all the time. This is democracy. Our system <br />may be a little sloppy but it works, there has to be a way for people to bring about changes. You <br />have not seen that many in the City. You do not do this unless it has to be done this way. It's a <br />long slow process - you will not have every day occurrences of this. <br /> <br />Councilmember Hendriksen stated that the City did have three special elections am~ually for <br />three years. At the end of those three elections, a bill was tried to make it harder to make Charter <br />changes but that bill has never seen the light of day. <br /> <br />Commissioner LaMere pointed out that we have now spent one and one-half hours on an issue <br />that this Charter has nothing to do with. <br /> <br />Case lB: City Council Membership and Terms <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich stated that the two Charter questions presented to the voters at the <br />November 7, 2000 election passed. The vote was to increase the City Council from four to six, <br />and the advisory question affirmatively voted on at the November 2000 election advised that the <br />electorate would like to see the majority of the Council stand for election every two years, the <br />vote to increase the Councilmembers from four to six would mean that in 2002, four members <br />would be elected and in 2004, three members would be elected. This means that the majority of <br />the Council would be elected in a non-presidential election year. <br /> <br />Charter Commission - February 15, 2001 <br /> Page 7 of 12 <br /> <br /> <br />