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Charter Commission November 29, 2007 Page 8 DRAFT 308 Commissioner Trehus stated his understanding was that the Commission wanted a better process 309 for projects and neighborhood involvement; this provision allows them to petition for a 310 referendum. 311 312 Commissioner Vacha suggested that the Commission review Commissioner Bening's proposed 313 amendments to Sections 8.05, 8.06, 8.07, 8.08, and 8.09 at this time. 314 315 Commissioner Bor respectfully disagreed and stated that the Commission agreed to proceed with 316 its review of Version #3 and asked Chair Duffy to table Commissioner Trehus's concerns. 317 318 Commissioner Trehus stated he felt there was a very simple solution that provides a means for 319 getting a project the neighbors can live with, i.e., a ranked ballot where people indicate their 320 preference. 321 322 Chair Duffy tabled Commissioner Trehus's suggested amendment. 323 324 Section 8.09 Taxpayer Referendum 325 326 Commissioner Bening expressed concern about the use of a percentage of the number of votes 327 cast: for mayor in the last mayoral election to trigger a referendum. He stated that one year, there 328 may be 4,000 voters in the mayoral election and the following year there may be 2,000 voters, 329 resulting in the percentage going up or down. He stated that people might say one time they 330 needed 500 signatures while the following year they only needed 100 signatures, which raises an 331 issue of equality under the law. 332 333 Ms. Marty stated the 12% requirement is the result of significant discussion by the Commission. 334 She stated the question ought to be what is the point of having signatures on a petition at all? 335 She opined there can be several reasons to require a petition. One is to make sure somebody isn't 336 holding up something that everybody wants. Another is that a petition is a representative sample 337 of the community that wants something. She stated in this situation, the Commission seems 338 highly disposed to keep that control with the taxpayers. She indicated if that is the real concern, 339 then the number of signatures required on the petition should be kept very low; if the idea is to 340 have a representative sample, then a percentage is appropriate and that number should be high 341 enough to make sure there is community support. 342 343 Commissioner Aldentaler felt the number should be kept low. 344 345 Commissioner Storberg stated it appears that the Charter Commission is uncomfortable with the 346 percentage requirement in this section and asked whether it might be appropriate to have the 347 Commission vote again on the issue. 348 349 MOTION by Commissioner Storberg, seconded by Chair Duffy, to reconsider the percentage 350 requirement to trigger a referendum in Section 8.09, subdivision 1. 351