116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa City charter review could include revamping voting districts
Council member proposes district seats be elected only by district residents
IOWA CITY — Iowa City next month will begin the process of reviewing its city charter, which happens every 10 years.
At least one council member says there should be changes to what now is a “broken” system in which some council candidates represent geographic districts but all citizens may vote for all district seats.
“This level of complexity is, at best, extremely confusing for voters and at worst, a systemic barrier to change and minority representation on the City Council,” Andrew Dunn wrote in a guest opinion piece in The Gazette last month.
The Iowa Constitution gives cities the power to choose among several forms of municipal government, among them the option of establishing a home rule charter to outline how city government is structured.
“Special charter cities are different,” said Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities. “At some point, these communities determined they wanted to develop a form of government that gave them more flexibility.”
Most cities in Iowa use a mayor-council form of government in which the mayor and five council members are elected at large, Kemp said.
In Cedar Rapids, also a charter city, the mayor and three council members are elected at large, while the remaining five members are elected by voters who live in their districts.
Iowa City’s 19-page charter defines how the council is elected and sets the group’s responsibilities, which include appointing a city manager, city clerk, city attorney and city boards. The charter also describes the duties of the city manager and how citizens may petition for a referendum.
The council has seven members, four elected at large and three elected to represent geographic districts. The district reps must live in their district and be nominated at primary by people who live in their district. But when it comes to the general election, all Iowa City voters can vote on all candidates — including those who represent districts.
After elections, the council chooses a mayor and mayor pro tem from among their members.
“The average person familiar with government would reasonably believe that only district residents vote for their district council member,” Dunn wrote. “In Iowa City, that’s not the case. District council members must be elected by the entire city, not just district voters. Every Iowa City voter gets a vote in every council race. We functionally elect every council member at large.”
At-large voting can be discriminatory because it takes away the opportunity for minority communities, often geographically segregated, to choose their elected officials by diluting their votes across the entire city, according to the NAACP.
Dunn recommended three possible amendments to the Iowa City charter:
- Require the three district council members to be elected by people who live in their district. Keep at-large seats.
- Abolish at-large seats and replace them with district reps, with all seven positions elected by voters in their districts.
- Turn all positions into at-large seats.
“Paths 1 and 2 would lower the barrier to entry for prospective candidates by reducing the number of voters who need to be contacted,” Dunn wrote. “That means less money spent on mailers, literature, and yard signs and more time with voters face to face.”
Getting rid of district representation provides the least confusion for voters, but risks the possibility council members will be clustered in one part of town, Dunn said.
“If there isn’t a will to move forward with one of the first two paths, the least we can do is eliminate the confusion the current system causes,” he said.
Dunn has agreed to let a Charter Commission decide what changes the charter may need, City Attorney Eric Goers said.
When the council meets Tuesday, the group will establish the Charter Commission and announce openings, Goers said. The council will accept applications until Feb. 13 for people who agree to serve on the nine-person commission from April 1 to no later than April 1, 2025.
The commission can recommend charter amendments to the council, which can amend the charter. But if voters petition proposed changes, the amendment may have to go before voters at a special election.
Linn County voters in 2016 changed the form of county government from five elected supervisors to three. This was three years after residents tried to get enough petition signatures to establish a charter commission.
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com
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