Review Past Charter Proposals Concerning City Elections

The purpose of this discussion is for the City Council to review and discuss Chapter 4 of the City's Charter pertaining to nominations and elections and to provide feedback on which of the revision options are desired by the City Council.  Option data is attached.   

Chapter 4 needs updating to comply with State Election Law, remove duplicative language, and eliminate vagueness.  When the City Council reviewed this topic in December 2019, the main point of dissent was related to primaries and the length of Council appointments that could occur under certain circumstances.  Per the attachments, option #1 would eliminate primaries entirely and option #2 would eliminate primaries except for general elections and vacancy special elections held on the date of the general election.   Both options  remove duplicative or vague language.   

Background:  The Charter Commission started their work on updating Chapter 4 in February 2019 and the Council reviewed the topic in December 2019.  The draft ordinance, #19-15 "An Ordinance Amending the Charter by Repealing and Replacing Chapter 4 - Nominations and Elections" did not pass.  In order for the ordinance to pass, all Councilmembers must motion in favor of the ordinance.   The Charter Commission motioned to do the following:

1. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.1, Option 1 as modified by the City Attorney’s office. 
2. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.2, Option 1 as modified by the City Attorney’s office. 
3. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.3 as modified by the City Attorney’s office. 
4. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.4, Option 4 as modified by the City Attorney’s office. 
5. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.5, Option 4 as modified by the City Attorney’s office. 
6. approve Chapter 4, Section 4.5.6 as modified by the City Attorney’s office.

 Attachments:
1) 02-13-19 Charter Commission Minutes
2) 10-17-19 Charter Commission Minutes
3) 12-10-19 City Council Work Session Minutes (starting on page 4)
4) 12-10-19 City Council Minutes (starting on page 8)
5) 08-27-20 DRAFT Charter Commission Minutes
6) Detailed Options  w/o Redline 
7) Charter Commission Proposals

Up to 30 minutes

Not applicable at this time.

City Attorney Langel
Administrative Services Director (City Clerk)  Lasher
City Administrator Ulrich

The intended outcome regarding this matter is for the City Council provide feedback on which options they can agree upon so the Charter Commission can meet again to develop alternative language.