Posted in Politics

What is in the proposed charter? Article III

   October 9, 2009

I will try to breakdown the various parts of the proposed charter.

Article III – Elected Positions
Sec. 3.01 Form of Government
* Separates the Mayor from the City Council, reducing the size of the council to nine members—seven single-member districts, two at-large seats. This allows the Mayor to talk with council members about city issues, something that can’t be done if he/she is a member of the council without violating Sunshine laws. There is no change in the boundaries of the districts in the charter.

Sec. 3.02 Election and terms
* Extends terms from two years to four years.
* Terms begin on the fourth Tuesday of November after the election. This eliminates the long lame-duck period of the past council —which was used by staff in 2008 to push through airport hotel agreements and port leases.
* The council terms will be staggered so that the council elections are every two years. Districts 2,4,6 and one at-large are group together; Districts 1,3,5, 7 and the other at-large. There are rules established to set up the staggering.

Sec. 3.03 Term limits
* Mayor can not serve more than three consecutive terms, 12 years. There is no limit now.
* The same is true for council members.
* The term limits begin with the November 2010 election.

Here is the entire document: Final charter

Share:

Rules for Comments

Your comments are welcomed, but there are some rules to follow:

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments.

(3) No Libel. That’s saying something is not true about someone. Don’t do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene, or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions.

(5) I reserve the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or are inappropriate. I am not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 1,500 characters or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over five days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate, or political group. Links in a comment aren’t allowed.

8) Commenting too many times may result in your comments not being allowed. Readers will begin to ignore your views.

9) Email me if you believe a comment violates any of these rules, and it will be deleted.