11-29-2007 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Charter Commission November 29, 2007 Page 8 APPROVED X309 310 Commissioner Trehus stated his understanding was that the Commission wanted a better process 311 for projects and neighborhood involvement; this provision does not provide that, and leaves them 312 with no recourse but to petition for a referendum. 313 314 Commissioner Vacha suggested that the Commission review Commissioner Bening's proposed 315 amendments to Sections 8.05, 8.06, 8.07, 8.08, and 8.09 at this time. 316 317 Commissioner Bor respectfully disagreed and stated that the Commission agreed to proceed with 318 its review of Version #3 and asked Chair Duffy to table Commissioner Trehus's concerns. 319 320 Commissioner Trehus stated he felt there was a very simple solution that provides a means for 321 getting a project the neighbors can live with, i.e., a ranked ballot where people indicate their 322 preference. 323 324 Chair Duffy tabled Commissioner Trehus's suggested amendment. 325 326 Section 8.09 Taxpayer Referendum 327 328 Commissioner Bening expressed concern about the use of a percentage of the number of votes 329 cast for mayor in the last mayoral election to trigger a referendum. He stated that one year, there "--N330 may be 4,000 voters in the mayoral election and the following year there may be 2,000 voters, 331 resulting in the percentage going up or down. He stated that people might say one time they 332 needed 500 signatures while the following year they only needed 100 signatures, which raises an 333 issue of equality under the law. 334 335 Ms. Marty stated the 12% requirement is the result of significant discussion by the Commission. 336 She stated the question ought to be what is the point of having signatures on a petition at all? 337 She opined there can be several reasons to require a petition. One is to make sure somebody isn't 338 holding up something that everybody wants. Another is that a petition is a representative sample 339 of the community that wants something. She stated in this situation, the Commission seems 340 highly disposed to keep that control with the taxpayers. She indicated if that is the real concern, 341 then the number of signatures required on the petition should be kept very low; if the idea is to 342 have a representative sample, then a percentage is appropriate and that number should be high 343 enough to make sure there is community support. 344 345 Commissioner Aldentaler felt the number should be kept low. 346 347 Commissioner Storberg stated it appears that the Charter Commission is uncomfortable with the 348 percentage requirement in this section and asked whether it might be appropriate to have the 349 Commission vote again on the issue. 350 351 MOTION by Commissioner Storberg, seconded by Chair Duffy, to reconsider the percentage '352 requirement to trigger a referendum in Section 8.09, subdivision 1. 8