Andy Driscoll, like me, supports 4-4-2 for council terms, but he does bring up an interesting wrinkle: electing the council at the same time as the mayor.
Since the Minneapolis mayor is not bound by redistricting, she or he will be elected every four years - 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2025 If you go 4-4-2 for council terms, you go 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2023...2027? Come 2023 (mind-boggling, I know), your council is now elected (a la St. Paul) on a different schedule than the mayor...at least in the 2025 and 2029 mayor's elections. (Everyone comes back together again in 2033.) Like Andy, I believe the mayor and council should be elected together. (I do not like "free shots" for councilmembers angling to move up...more mischief than is necessary.) Therefore, you to create back-to-back two-year terms, not just 4-4-2, but 4-4-2-2 (or, for the truly complete cycle, 4-4-4-4-2-2). Not sure how much bigger fight politicians would put up against two 2-year terms instead of one, but it's a factor reformist wonks should figure out when advocating a plan. David Brauer Kingfield on 11/18/03 3:40 PM, Andy Driscoll at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > (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 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
