Iola commissioners have begun the paperwork that will set the city’s next commission at five members.
Commissioners directed City Attorney Chuck Apt Tuesday to write up charter ordinances that will put the new governing body in office next April.
“I’ve said that I would go along with whatever the voters chose,” Commissioner Bill Shirley said, noting the results from the April 6 advisory election. “And five got the most votes.”
In the advisory election, 45 percent of voters picked the five-member commission, while another 28 percent picked a seven-member commission. Another 28 percent favored seeing a nine-member governing body.
A few notes:
While he was not opposed to seeing a five-member commission, Mayor Bill Maness offered a token “no” vote because he favored seeing a city council seated next April, not a commission.
Maness noted that a city council was recommended by a citizens advisory group that met over several months last fall before recommending in January that the city set up a hybrid seven-member city council.
While the next governing body will, indeed, be a city commission, the members will be chosen from each of the four wards, much like city councils are comprised.
That measure, proposed by Maness, passed with a 2-1 vote, Commissioner Craig Abbott opposed.
Unlike a city council, the mayor in the new governing body will remain a voting member of the commission.
All five seats, including the mayor’s, will be up for election next April, Apt noted.
The commissioners also will at some point be required to set up other charter ordinances to set such things as meeting times and decide whether the city treasurer’s post should be appointed or elected, Apt said.
THE PAIR of votes came after an extensive debate among commissioners and Iolan Ray Shannon, who said he was speaking on behalf of a number of Iolans who still favored an eight-member city council.
Shannon repeated earlier comments that commissioners should respect the 2009 April vote to disband the existing commission and do nothing, thus triggering the eight-member council next April.
Shannon also pointed out that 55 percent of the votes cast favored a governing body larger than five members and that the existing commission did just enough to confuse the voters to ensure a five-member governing body would receive the most votes.
Shannon groused that while the Kansas Constitution gives municipalities the ability to draft charter ordinances to set up whatever governing body they see fit, it was improper for Iola to do it in this case because of the April 2009 vote.
“That part of home rule may be legal, but there have been no court challenges,” Shannon said.
Shannon’s comments touched a nerve with Apt, who pointed out that the home rule authority has been challenged on multiple occasions.
“And the Supreme Court has ruled in every occasion that home rule should be upheld,” Apt said.
Apt also noted that the same home rule authority would give the next governing body the right to reshape itself, through charter ordinances.
DESPITE HIS earlier complaints about the five-member commission, Shannon said the ward voting may be enough to placate the proponents of the eight-member council.
Shannon previously had threatened to start a petition drive to challenge whatever charter ordinances the city approved.
“It’s possible that with the ward voting (in place), we may not worry about” starting the petition, Shannon said.
