As Iola City Council members discuss the makeup of their governing body, another option is being added to the mix.
Councilman Scott Stewart said Wednesday he will suggest the council consider downsizing to a five-member governing body, with four councilmen and a mayor.
Stewart said he’s heard from “enough” people in support of a five-member council to convince him to bring up the suggestion at Monday’s meeting.
Councilmen are considering a new charter ordinance that would alter how the current councilmen are elected by setting up staggered terms for each ward’s two representatives; greatly reduce the mayor’s powers; and change the city treasurer’s position from elected to appointed.
The option proposed by Stewart would cut the council in half by having only one representiative from each of the city’s four voting wards.
The councilmen have left their options open through this month in order to garner public feedback before they decide.
That has opened the door for local residents to voice their opinions in the Register and elsewhere in support of a five-member council.
The council size and makeup has been at the heart of an ongoing debate among local voters for more than three years. A petition drive in 2009 originally led to the old commission form of government being abandoned in favor of a different governing body.
Former commissioners — following an advisory vote in April 2010 — installed charter ordinances establishing a hybrid, five-member commission. It was rejected by voters that November after a second petition drive prompted an up-or-down vote on the ordinance.
The rejection left Iola’s “default” governing body an eight-member council, with two members elected from each ward, and a mayor voted in at large.
Stewart said he favored a five-member governing body when the issue was in front of Iola’s voters, first in 2009, then again one year later.
