Consideration and Approval of Agreement:  Intergovernmental Agreement between City of Flagstaff and Coconino County for election services for the May 19, 2015, Special Election.

Approve the Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County for election services for the May 19, 2015, Special Election.

On January 6, 2015, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 2014-43 calling for a special election to be held on May 19, 2015, to submit to the registered voters of Flagstaff the first set of proposed amendments to the City Charter. With the exception of Phoenix and Tucson, who perform their own elections, municipalities across the state contract for the operation of their elections, primarily with their respective county. While the City is responsible for many of the election activities such as preparation of the resolution, ballot language, public notices, and Information Pamphlet, the County prepares the ballot (with approval by the City), mails and receives the ballots, and counts the ballots on election day. The attached Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) outlines the roles of the City and County in this Special Mail Ballot Election.

This election has been budgeted in the FY2015 Budget. The services provided by the County are charged at $2.50 per registered voter. With approximately 31,000 registered voters, the County charges should be around $77,500. Additional expenses will be incurred with Election Operation Services for compilation, translation, and mailing of the associated Publicity Pamphlet as well as the notification postcards.

While the Special Election itself has been discussed multiple times, as further explained under Background/History on the next page, the Intergovernmental Agreement has not been discussed although it is very similar to previous agreements.

1) Approve the IGA as presented or  2) amend the IGA and return to Coconino County for further consideration.

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 questions and directed staff to bring back in resolution form those questions which were determined had sufficient public input due to the housekeeping changes that were either clarifying (e.g., personnel-related items determined by City Manager such as personnel hires or rules to conform to our Council-Manager form of government, etc.) or of a technical nature (e.g., specifying certain actions are determined by ordinance, etc.) to be placed on the ballot for May 19, 2015.

The remaining questions which focus more broadly on policies that Council believes should continue to be further reviewed and discussed with the public, will be taken to the residents of Flagstaff for additional input and will be considered for placement on a future ballot by the Council at a later time for ultimate citizen decision.

Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower

An election of this type provides the ultimate power to the voters of the City, in allowing them to amend the Charter.