The City Council initially gave direction to conduct a comprehensive review of the City Charter through a City Manager-appointed resident committee. This committee met 10 times during 2014 and presented their recommendations to the City Manager in October. On October 28 and November 25, 2014, the City Council discussed these proposals and directed staff to bring back, in resolution form, those proposals which were housekeeping changes that were either clarifying or of a technical nature. Those proposals were placed on the ballot for May 19, 2015. The remaining proposals, which focus more broadly on policy were taken to the residents of Flagstaff for additional input.

What are being presented at this time are the policy proposals and the comments received from the various community groups, along with any comments received from individuals. Staff is requesting direction on which proposals Council would like moved forward to be included as ballot questions in a November 2015 Special Election, which will also include three questions related to election dates (previously discussed).

As directed, staff made presentations to the following community organizations and comments received at these presentations have been noted on the attached spreadsheet. Staff was unable to confirm dates for presentations with a few other groups. Additionally, a few individuals provided comments as well and those have been included.

• Sierra Club
• CCCY Executive Committee
• CCCY Governmental Affairs Committee
• Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee
• Liberty Alliance
• Coconino County Republican Committee
• SEDI
• Coconino County Democratic Executive Committee
• Northern Arizona Area Realtors
• Democratic Women's Group
• Republic Women's Group
• F3/Speak Up
• Flagstaff Tea Party (information provided; no presentation)
• Flagstaff Downtown Business Alliance (information provided; brief presentation)

As a recap, at the Council meeting of February 24, 2015, Council directed staff to ask the citizens to determine whether elections will be held in:

1) August/November of even-numbered years; or
2) March/May of odd-numbered years.

A staff committee, consisting of Deputy City Manager Jerene Watson, City Attorney Michelle D'Andrea, City Clerk Elizabeth Burke and Assistant to the City Manager for Communications Kim Ott, has reviewed these proposals and is submitting the following points for consideration by the City Council.

1) Realistically, there is room for 12 questions on a ballot. Three have already been directed by Council to move forward, leaving nine spaces. Should the Council wish to move forward with more than 12 questions, the English questions could be included on one ballot, both sides, and a separate Spanish ballot would have to be prepared; however, a different process is required for providing a Spanish ballot and this process can be problematic.

2) Not all of these questions would need to be moved forward to a November 2015 ballot. They could be added to a future ballot for consideration at a later time.

3) Some of these questions (which we have noted on the attached recap) do not make significant changes and could be confusing to explain the purpose.