Dave asks a good question. Part of the answer is that four-year terms for city councilors is a relatively recent phenomenon, and many of them would fall under a home rule charter (the same governing document Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth use). Of course, only cities with districted wards would be required to periodically redraw their lines to reflect population shifts. Those with at-large councils need not be concerned. Moreover, most cities still call for 2-year terms.
There was a time when all local offices stood for election every year. A few years ago, a state law was passed requiring home rule cities and Cities of the First Class (those over 400,000 in population, or grandfathered in with previous such levels) currently only Mpls, St. Paul and Duluth) to establish 4-year terms for their councilmembers. St. Paul was able to put off the change under an agreement to put it to the voters one more time, an amendment to set four year terms having failed just two years before that. This time voters approved overwhelmingly. What they never did, of course, was take redistricting into consideration when extending tenure this way. The example was set by the Legislature, not the cities, in that the required 4-year term legislation failed to account for redistricting. This is why Rep. Kahn's call for early elections is disingenuously disenfranchising, an imposition on city electors who have believed since 2001 that the representatives they elected would be there for four years. That's why this is all so dumb. It would have been good government to adopt the 4-4-2 construct from the beginning, but stuffing another election in the middle of the Council's terms is everything but. (The error for St. Paul, and I take partial responsibility for not seeing this coming, is that the start of four-year terms went into effect two years before it should have, and that resulted in staggered 4-year terms between the mayor and the council. This year, the council, in 2005, the mayor. Not a good thing for many reasons, but all city offices should be elected in the same year.) Andy Driscoll Saint Paul -------- >> Linda Higgins wrote: >>> Change the charter to 4-4-2. >> > > . I agree with Andy Driscoll that this is good idea. > This way everyone would know the terms up front. I find > unsettling the concept of unexpectantly and drastically > changing the rules of the game in midstream. > >> Jim Bernstein wrote: >>> ... nationally, after redistricting is completed, about > two-thirds of all incumbents were left in districts (albeit > changed) without another incumbent. > > > If I understand Jim's comment correctly, this means that > about one-third of all incumbents are redistricted out of > their districts. If this is true, then there must be a > well established precedent nationwide in dealing with this > type of situation. What has been the standard procedure? > Of all the city council, county commission, and state > legislative districts in this country, there must be number > of them on four year terms. What have all of them been > doing every 20 years for the last 2 centuries? > > Dave Stack > Harrison REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
