GARNETT Garnett voters will decide in an upcoming mail ballot election whether to expand the citys commission from three to five members.
Existing commissioners voted, 2-1, for the referendum, which could face legal challenges, the Anderson County Review reported.
The mail-in vote was set up following an advisory election in 2018 in which voters approved seeing the governing body grow from three to five members. The vote was non-binding.
The ballots will be mailed July 25, with a noon Aug. 14 deadline.
Since then, a petition drive to put the matter to a binding vote passed, but not in time to have the question placed on ballots in the upcoming general election in November.
Because of that, Commissioners Brigitte Brecheisen-Huss and Greg Gwin pushed for the mail-in vote, the newspaper reported.
The Review noted the mail ballot procedure passed, despite warnings from City Attorney Terry Solander, who questioned whether a mail ballot election can legally be used for an election on a charter ordinance that was not prompted by a petition.
Solander said the proper course would be to push the vote back a year, to the fall of 2020, with new commissioners being seated in 2021.
Commissioner Jody Cole, who cast the lone dissenting vote against holding the upcoming election, said her opposition centered on the costs of scheduling a special election about $7,500 plus salaries to bring on two commissioners, about $11,000 annually, the Review reported.
