Minutes - Charter Commission - 05/24/2001

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until there is a full Commission present. City Administrator Norman stated that City staff works with the Chair of the Commission relating to agendas, etc., therefore it would be easier if a Chair was nominated tonight. Mr. Vogt stated that it would be a pleasure to work with this Commission as the Chair, and he would also like for Barry Childs to be Vice Chair but he would respect Ms. LaMere's wishes also. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Commissioners Childs, Milless, Bertzyk, Deemer, LaMere, Swanson and Vogt. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioners Ebel and Henke. Motion by Commissioner Milless and seconded by Commissioner LaMere to nominate Commissioner Barry Childs for Vice Chair for the remainder of this year. Further discussion: Commissioner LaMere agreed that the Commission needed leadership but her reasoning for suggesting that they wait is because she wanted representation from the people who had been on the Commission at least a year and Ms. Henke, being one of those, is missing. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Vogt, Commissioners Milless, LaMere, Deemer and Swanson. Voting No: None. Abstain: Commissioners Bertzyk and Childs. Absent: Commissioners Ebel and Henke. Case #3: Special Election Questions City Attorney Goodrich stated that the Charter Commission has been working on whether there should be wards and primary elections. He gave some background information and stated that these issues could be adopted as Charter amendments or the City Council could pass it. The proposal is to have four wards and two Councilmembers at large plus the Mayor would be at large. He explained that with the last election, the members of Council were increased for the next election to seven members with the Mayor. There was an advisory question passed that the majority should turn over every two years and to accommodate that, we should have a two-year Council term. The Charter can be amended in a couple of ways: A petition by 5% of the voters can bypass the Charter Commission and go to the City Council and City Council has to schedule an election; or this Charter Commission could make a recommendation to City Council. City Council cannot change the language but they can phrase the ballot questions and schedule the election. Another way to change the Charter is by ordinance - there is a 90-day waiting period. The suggestion has been to amend the Charter by wards and take that recommendation to the City Council. If a recommendation is made to Council, then there must be an election and the election date has to be set within a 90-day period. If the City is planning for wards for the 2002 election, this all needs to be done by next April (2002) APPROVE MINUTES: Past Chairperson Kiefer noted that the minutes were not approved in the beginning of the meeting and he suggested that be taken care of prior to any other action or further discussion by the Commission. Charter Commission - May 24, 2001 Page 3 of 7