Commission examines City Council structure: Are changes needed?

Five of the city's nine City Council members are elected by voters in specific districts of the city, while four, including the mayor, are elected by the entire city. Should that mix change?

The was one of the questions that a sprinkling of citizens raised with the city's Charter Review Commission as the 12-member commission invited public comment at a two-hour session Thursday night at the El Kahir Shrine Center, 1400 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE.

The commission's task, which began May 5 and will be complete by August, is to review the city's six-year-old Home Rule Charter and suggest changes, if any, to it.

The charter - which voters approved by a 69-to-31-percent margin in June 2005 and which changed the city's form of government to one with a part-time mayor and council and a full-time city manager - requires a Charter Review Commission to meet this year and every 10 years after 2011.

Commission member Jim Craig said last night that the city's current form of government was designed to turn the day-to-day operation of the city over to a professional city manager and his staff and leave policymaking matters to the elected officials. Among the questions raised last night, though, was whether having a majority of council members elected in council districts, in fact, resulted in council members, not the city manager, running more of the day-to-day affairs of government in their districts than the city's charter envisioned, said Craig, a Cedar Rapids attorney.

A counter argument, he added, was that too many council members might end up being elected from one part of the city without council districts.

Among the well-discussed issues last night was whether the council member appointed mayor pro tem to serve as mayor in the mayor's absence should be chosen from among council members elected by the entire city. The council's current mayor pro tem is District 2 council member Monica Vernon.

Scott Olson, a Realtor with Skogman Commercial Realty and a 2005 mayoral candidate, suggested to commission members that the mayor pro tem should rotate among the council members each year to give each council member some experience at running meetings. Nancy Kasparek, president of US Bank, thought it made more sense for the mayor pro tem to be a council member who has worked closely with the elected mayor.

Former Mayor Kay Halloran, who is heading up the Charter Review Commission along with Former Mayor Paul Pate, thought it might make sense to have the mayor pro tem come from those council members elected by the entire city.

Brad Hart, a Cedar Rapids attorney, told commission members that he would like to see the city's charter tweaked in a way that would change the unbalanced stagger of terms now in place. Three council members are elected in one election cycle, including this year's, and six are elected in the cycle two years later. A 5-4 stagger would be better, Hart said.

Commission member Scott Overland said he wanted the Charter Review Commission to focus on the “part-time” status of council members as spelled out in the charter to make sure that the city doesn't “limit our pool” of people willing to seek a seat on the council. Many people could envision themselves sitting on a part-time council, but many also could not run for office if the part-time role, in reality, was more of a full-time one, he said.

There was a general sense last night and in two previous Charter Review Commission sessions that the current charter is still new and does not need major reworking.

Even so, Rick Davis, a Cedar Rapids flood survivor, showed up last night with a petition that calls to change the city's form of government to one with a full-time mayor and four full-time council members.

The city's former commission form of government featured a full-time mayor and four full-time council members, each of whom doubled as administrators of certain city departments.

Residents can comment on the city's Home Rule Charter at the city's Web page,

www.cedar-rapids.org.