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• RAY: Thank you. Okay, Mr. Martin. <br />MARTIN: Yes, I have a question on - <br />PRANKE: Yes sir. <br />MARTIN: Your concern with the Board of Ethics. At present there's five members <br />and you'd like to see it increased to nine. Is that what I heard you say? <br />PRANKE: I believe so. <br />MARTIN: And - <br />PRANKE: The main reason for that is because they tend to have a problem getting a <br />quorum. If somebody brings a charge before the Board of Ethics, it can take as much <br />as six months for a citizen to go through the entire process with these folks because <br />they have to meet sometimes, depending on who is the person being charged, that <br />person won't show up for two or three meetings, it can be problem and not having a <br />quorum exacerbates that situation because, as I said, I believe that three out of the six <br />meetings this year so far have been canceled because of lack of quorum. <br />RAY: Any other questions? Okay, thanks Del. As soon as you can get us input <br />in writing, especially the more detailed issues so that if they require legal research, that <br />would be really helpful for us. <br />PRANKE: Certainly. <br />RAY: Okay, thank you. Next, Julie Jacobson. Councilwoman Jacobson. For <br />the folks that just came in, you need to sign up to testify and also Ms. Herkes has <br />joined us and Mr. Alonzo. Good evening. <br />JULIE JACOBSON: <br />Thank you Commission members, for holding this meeting. This is a good <br />start on it. I guess it seems a little bit like we have a cart before the horse because we <br />don't have any particular proposals to reflect on although we certainly have this chance <br />to make some specific input. The only input I'd like to make at this time is just to the <br />one issue of holding a special election and I think just based on the grass roots <br />democracy concept of special elections traditionally have an extremely low voter <br />turnout so what we'd have is an election that would be based on, I'm sure, way less <br />than half of our population, probably a very, small fraction. I've heard of figures like 14 <br />to 20% maximum come out for special elections and I just think that decisions about a <br />Charter which is a document we will live with for the next ten years, there is no need to <br />rush into a situation like that and I think that we would have a better chance to <br />