Special Election discussion - July 17, 2017

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Item No: 01 Meeting Date: July 17, 2017 Type of Business: Work Session City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Joint Meeting between the Charter Commission and the City Council Introduction: Subsequent to the election of Council member Mueller to the position of mayor at last year’s general election, the Council has discussed the process by which special elections are held and under what set of conditions. City Attorney Riggs indicates that the Mounds View City Charter (Section 4.05, attached) is different from most cities (both statutory and charter) in that our Charter requires a special election be held for any vacancy where 365 days or more is remaining in a term. When less than 365 days remain in the term, the City Council may appoint someone to fill the remainder of the term. The more common language in other communities would allow for Council appointment for periods less than two years. Discussion: The Council had expressed some concern about the requirement for a special election with one year remaining in a term given the cost, and also because of the amount of time required to schedule the special election. If a vacancy occurred with 365 days left in the term, the elected candidate could end up serving only 4 months before needing to file for office once again for the next election. Given the cost to the City to hold a special election, along with the monetary and time cost to the elected candidate, the Council posed the question to the Charter Commission that perhaps 365 days is too short of a time frame. Staff asked Joe Mansky, the Ramsey County Elections Manager, from a practical standpoint, what the minimum amount of time they would need to hold a special election. His response is as follows: “Since Minn. Stat. 205.16, subd 4 requires the city to provide us with notice of what is going to be on the ballot at least 74 days before the election, I'm thinking that this would effectively be the minimum time needed for us to conduct the election. However, to allow us to have a reasonable filing period (which would be from 98 to 84 days before the election), provide notice to the public (two weeks before the first day to file for office), and to provide the council with time to authorize the special election, 120 days would be my recommendation for the minimum time period needed to conduct a special election.” Accordingly, if a seat were vacated on December 31, 2017, the earliest we could hold a special election would be April 1, 2018. Filing for office for the next general election would begin early August 2018, thus the newly elected council member would need to file for office after serving for only four months, presuming he or she intended to run for re- election.