Minutes - Charter Commission - 10/04/2000 - Informal Meeting

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Chairperson Kiefer stated that in the process of deciding whether the Commission should put this issue to the residents, statistics were gathered and pros and cons were researched. Commissioner Childs reported that in 1996, the League of Minnesota Cities surveyed a number of charter cities asking them to provide information regarding government size and election process (wards, primaries, etc.). He spoke with the League and this survey is current. Some cities had larger councils (e.g. Minneapolis with 13, St. Paul with 7 and Red Wing with 9). Red Wing has a question for their ballot to reduce their number from nine to seven.. They do not have a voting mayor, their population is 16,000 and they feel that a five-member council would be too small. Mr. Childs reported that 70°I of the 96 charter cities over all have councils that are larger than Ramsey's, 35% have six members plus the mayor, 15% have five councilmembers, 30% have councils the same size as Ramsey's current Council. He stated that he called several of these cities and none had any negative remarks relating to their number of Council. Chairperson Kiefer stated that the Commission surveyed past Mayor and Council candidates and current Councilmembers for thoughts on increasing the number of members. It was felt that increasing the number of Councilmembers was that some of the workload could be more evenly distributed. The cost for the City would be increased by about $9,000 per year. Commissioner Childs stated that the burden of distributing decision-making was also mentioned. It appeared that six was a comfortable number. Chairperson Kiefer added that it could also prevent like-minded individuals on the Council. Mr. Norman stated that the two other major issues discussed by Charter were wards and primaries. A joint meeting between the City Council and Charter was held. It was consensus of both that of the three major issues, this item (number of Councilmembers) is probably the least amount of debate and least amount of disagreement between the Council and Charter. Commissioner Childs stated that Commissioner Donovan had mentioned that going to a six member Council may nullify the reason to go to a primary election. Patti Kurak, 15001 Sunfish Lake Boulevard NW, Ramsey, stated she is running for City Council. She mentioned the ward system and noted that.no one on Council is from the sewer and water area and she felt that was an imbalance. There are quite a few people in that area and the interests of the people are definitely different. She suggested it would be well worth it to have a ward system. She did not know what it takes to implement a ward system, but felt it is necess~iry to do it and to do it soon. Mr. Norman informed Ms. Kurak that the process would start with the Charter Commission. He added there is a window of opportunity to put such a question on the ballot. You can only create wards in a four-year out of a 1 O-year period. He added that Ms. Kurak is raising some policy issues and these questions should be posed to the Charter Commission. This Commission has to forward it to the City Council or the City Council can do it on their own. Charter Commission Public Informational Meeting/October 4, 2000 Page 2 of 4