Good luck getting a charter amendment through. The Charter Commission can't even agree with the Council on housekeeping changes. There are several council members that want this to go away. But whether or not this occurs legislatively there could be a legal challenge which would be sent directly to federal court because of voting laws. I believe the wards have changed substantially. The eighth ward in effect has no council member (no offense Robert I think you're doing a good job!). Plus we have a huge influx of minority voters. People have a right to have a say in who governs them. One person, one vote.
Lisa McDonald
East Harriet
----- Original Message -----From: Greg AbbottSent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 4:58 PMTo: Michelle MensingCc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: [Mpls] Rep Kahn introduce HF 67 leds to City Council members to run againOn Tuesday, January 14, 2003, at 09:54 AM, Michelle Mensing wrote:
> I suggest that the legislators address this issue in 2005 to remedy
> the situation for the 2010 census and redistricting.
>
> Michelle Mensing
> Armatage
A couple of points:
1. This is a problem that will crop up every 20 years - every other
decade. There is a general city election scheduled for 2013, immediate
after redistricting occurs in 2012. Hence, there is no problem to fix
after the 2010 census. However, there is no city election scheduled
between 2021 and 2025, and the problem will reoccur after the 2020
census.
2. We can fix this ourselves with a charter amendment without going to
the legislature. Every other decade we simply need to divide in half
the four-year term starting in a year ending in a "1." Simply amend
the charter to say that council elections in a year ending in "1" are
for a two-year term, and that council elections occurring in a year
ending in "3" which are produced because of a previous council election
in a year ending in "1" are also for two-years. Meaning that council
elections held in years ending in "5" would revert to the full four
years.
Thus, the sequence of elections would be (or would have been) as
follows:
2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2023, 2025, 2029, etc.
The sequence of terms would be 2-2-4-4-4-4, 2-2-4-4-4-4, etc., every 20
years.
Greg Abbott
------------------------------------
Sent from the computer of:
Greg Abbott [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Linden Hills
13th Ward (612) 925-0630
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