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MEMORANDUM <br />To: Mayor Klausing, Councilmembers, Staff <br />From: Dan Roe <br />Subject: Proposed Special Election Ordinance Changes <br />Following on the discussions during the recent appointment process to fill the vacancy that <br />resulted from the passing of Tom dough, I have developed the attached draft ordinance to <br />change our special election provisions. <br />The primary purpose of the draft ordinance is to broaden the use of special elections to cover any <br />type of vacancy, rather than the current limitation to cases where a councilmember assumes an <br />incompatible office. <br />The second purpose is to specify the timing of when a special election would occur. <br />As to the timing issue, I have expressed previously, and I believe, that we should not have 2 <br />elections overlapping with each other. If we can hold a special election prior to the beginning of <br />the process of a scheduled election, that is preferable to me. However, if that cannot be the case, <br />then we should allow the scheduled election to serve its purpose (either as a special election, as <br />outlined in state statute, or as a regular election, as is occurring this year) . <br />Based on the information provided previously by staff, it appears that using a special election for <br />vacancies that occur at least 10 weeks prior to the start of filing for the regular election would <br />allow time for the special election to be held prior to then. <br />For that reason, I have proposed the 10 week time frame in my draft ordinance. <br />As you can see from the various time line examples that I have included with the draft ordinance, <br />most of the time, the special election would be held within that 10 week time frame, and any <br />appointee would only serve for around 3 months. <br />It should be noted that, had this ordinance been in effect at the time Councilmember ough died, <br />we would most likely have been holding a special election later this month. <br />I welcome council discussion, and look forward to passing a change which achieves the <br />objective of allowing the voters to fill council vacancies whenever possible - and indeed in most <br />cases. <br />OEM <br />