Alert: December 21st City Council Special Mtg and Workshop at 7 PM on Charter

December 16, 2017

There will be a City Council Special Workshop, concurrent with a City Council Special Meeting on Thursday, December 21 at 7pm in City Hall. The special meeting was called at the December 7th City Council meeting when City Attorney Max Lohman pointed out that there were issues with the implications of the ballot language wording for Ordinance 28, 2017. Council was to discuss revised language for either an outright ban of term limited council members running again or to allow for a 3-year sit-out.

There is now an additional agenda for a City Council Special Workshop to discuss all of the proposed ballot ordinances:

Ordinance 26, 2017 – the repeal and replace of the Charter
Two versions of wording for Ordinance 27, 2017 – allowing for 3 3-year terms here and here.
Ordinance 28, 2017 – new wording and an either/or choice of the 3-year sit-out vs
Ordinance 32, 2017 – with a life-time ban for term-limited council members
Ordinance 29, 2017 – changing from Majority Wins to Plurality Wins

Public Comment will only be permitted for agenda items Ordinance 28, 2017 and Ordinance 32, 2017.

The Ballot summaries and ballot language have changed from the December 7th City Council Meeting. There is a lot being modified in quite a chaotic rush in order to meet the need for 2nd reading and adoption on January 4th and the January 19th noon deadline for getting on the ballot March 13, 2018. (This will get scant attention from even involved citizens as all head into the holiday period. Thus our Council will attempt to meet the ‘letter of the law’ while not meeting the ‘intent’ of transparency and full disclosure.)

Please read our summary of the December 7th meeting entitled Council Forges Ahead to Change Term Limits and Elections 4:1 and the latest Martino Minute entitled Charter Changes – No need, No reason, No urgency.