1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 37 of 60 Committee and the Corporation Counsel is a non-voting member of the Committee and they write the question. Put them in a room. Let them write it. So be it. I think that’s about the only way that I could see that would be fair and efficient in terms of writing the question. Also, the Charter presently says we need to submit an objective summary on the ballot. We received an Attorney General Opinion the last time that said that we are not permitted to do that. That there’s a State law that says that the only thing you can put on the ballot is certain things, and an objective summary is not one of them. So according to this Attorney General Opinion, we’re not supposed to have the objective summary. And by the way, you think it was bad enough getting criticized on the question, the objective summary was just another issue that people raised as we’re being unfair in the drafting of the question. So my suggestion is just take it out. Also, I think State law is fairly clear that blank and spoiled ballots should not be counted as a ballot cast but to make it crystal clear, I would suggest that you put language in the Charter to that effect, that again, a blank and spoiled ballot would not be counted as a ballot cast. Number 5. There’s a typographical error, I believe, in Section 11-6 which refers to Sections 3-9 and 3-11 relating to the passage of ordinances. I think that’s a typographical error. The last thing is deadline on the last election thing, and that is I think that petitions should be submitted at the latest by May 1st of the election year because there is no deadline in the Charter. Now, there’s a practical deadline because if you work it backwards, all the deadlines that you have on the books now means that if you turn in your petition after July or something, it’s almost impossible to get on the ballot, but the Charter has no deadline so what I’m suggesting, as an individual, is put some deadline in there. I think if you want to be as open as possible to citizen input, maybe May 1st is the latest you could have, but I suggest you have some deadline in there because there’s no sense people turn in petitions, that we’re going to have to process, that can’t possibly make it on the ballot. It’s just an exercise in futility. That’s all the comments I have as a private citizen on election matters. Thank you. RAY: Thank you. I just want to make it clear. We’re not discussing or deciding any of these areas this evening so since we had Al here, we just took advantage of it to get this stuff. KONISHI: Mr. Chairman, I have written material that I’ll submit to your staff. RAY: Thank you very much. Okay, let’s take a five minute break. RECESSED The Chairman called a short recess at 5:17 p.m. RECONVENED The meeting reconvened at 5:30 p.m. RAY: Let’s call the meeting back to order. I’d like to have a little discussion. I’m not suggesting we have to make a decision this evening. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011