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selecting members is, the name of the contact person for the board or commission, and other <br />relevant information concerning the board or commission. It also states the authority and <br />powers of the commission. Now, for instance, I thought - -and I wanted to thank you too - -it <br />was very helpful to be coming before the Charter Commission and having just a short <br />biography of who I was addressing. So, I appreciate that you were willing to put that on your <br />website, short bios for each of you. I think that's important for community members to be <br />able to know who they're talking to. So, I also included that information in this Charter <br />Amendment. <br />I'm moving on to Vacancy in Office. If you are going to be considering four years in office, <br />a very stout and very easy to follow to recall Charter amendment would be important to <br />balance a four -year term. That way, if someone gets in to the Council office, the Mayor's <br />office, or the Prosecuting Attorney -- because those are the only three offices that are elected <br />in our County - -and they are not doing their job, or something happens or whatever, then you <br />are going to want to balance a four -year term with an easier recall method. Well after we <br />went through that onerous process of how is the vacancy filled. When I looked at that <br />process, if there is a vacancy in a council office, the ruling majority will vote to replace the <br />council member. Now, I don't know that that would serve the interests of the island well, <br />because that would only support the majority. <br />If a vacancy occurs in the Mayor's office, right now the Managing Director takes over, and <br />that's not someone who ran for office. And that may not be someone who has leadership <br />capabilities. If a vacancy occurs in the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, his appointee, the <br />first deputy, takes over. That person may not be the best for a leadership position. So, in my <br />proposal, this Charter Amendment says, "The person who received the next highest number <br />of votes in the last general election (or in the primary election if the official won in the <br />primary election) shall be appointed to serve the remainder of that term." Now, Barbara <br />Lively had a really good point. If that person only got 10% of the vote, I don't know if that <br />is a real citizens' mandate. I also had several comments from other people about that and <br />that it wasn't the best way to go. As I rethink that, maybe that isn't the best way to go. So, <br />after six months in office, if there are more than six months left in office, maybe it should go <br />back to the people and also in a special election by mail. If it's less than six months, the <br />County Council could appoint someone to serve out the term. So that's what I'm proposing <br />on that. <br />On the last one, which is Communication 51, amending or revising the Charter - -as I was <br />reading that one - -it becomes very difficult. The reason I know it becomes difficult is because <br />when we did the 2% for Open Space as an amendment, we had a very, very difficult time as a <br />citizens' group understanding the process by which the ordinance could be amended. Also, <br />dealing with the County as to whether we could collect more signatures, when to get in the <br />petitions, the signature verification process, whether a signature was viable. As a matter of <br />fact, one of the big issues we had was the most signatures that were deleted or found to be <br />invalid were found because the date was incorrect. People left off the year, '06. That was <br />kind of "nit- picky" because it started in April and ended in July. It wasn't like it ran from <br />year to year. So that was one of the largest reasons why people's signatures were kicked off <br />16 <br />