Iolans may be asked a third time to vote on the size and form of the city’s next governing body.
Ken Rowe told the Register this morning that he is well on his way to collecting the necessary signatures for a petition drive challenging a charter ordinance put into place by the city last week.
The ordinance would seat a hybrid five-member city commission next April, in which the commissioners represent each of Iola’s four voting wards, with a mayor voted in at large. The mayor would be a voting member of the commission.
If the petition drive is successful and the ordinance is subsequently rejected by voters in the general election in November, Iola’s next governing body would be a nine-member city council, with two council members from each ward plus a mayor who would vote only to break ties.
Rowe has a looming deadline for the challenge to be voted on in November.
The petition must be handed over to the city clerk with the names of at least 49 Iola voters by Aug. 10, a week from today, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton said.
Officially, petitioners have 60 days from when a charter ordinance is first published, which would put the deadline the last week of September. However, Elections Officer Sherrie Riebel told the Register that all November ballot issues must be set by Sept. 7.
That means that Hutton and the city must ensure the petition is legitimate before it is handed to the elections office, thus the Aug. 10 deadline. If that deadline is not met, but the petition is successful, the city would schedule a special election after November. To be deemed valid, the petition must have the signatures of at least 10 percent of the number of voters in the last citywide election. In April, 487 voters took part in the mayoral election.
THE SIZE of Iola’s next governing body has been hotly contested since Iolans originally voted to disband the existing three-member city commission in April 2009.
Using that vote’s results and the city’s home rule authority, the existing commission appointed a citizens committee to study Iola’s future governance. Following a number of split votes, the committee ultimately recommended a seven-member governing body.
However, after hearing opposing comments from other committee members, commissioners ordered a second, non-binding citywide vote in April asking voters whether they approved of a five-, seven- or nine-member city commission.
The five-member commission received 291, or 45 percent, of the 650 ballots cast, while the seven- and nine-member options each received 179 votes or 28 percent.
“I’m not quarreling with an eight-member council and a mayor or a five-member commission and a mayor,” Rowe said. “But our last binding vote overwhelmingly favored putting in place an eight-member council.”
The petition’s language, if approved, will ask Iolans for a yes or no vote. A yes vote means the charter ordinance will be adopted. A no vote would erase the ordinance and set up rules for the eight-member city council.
