Hillsboro council works through with fall-election mandate

Prodded by a law passed in 2015 by the Kansas Legis?lature, the Hillsboro City Council spent most of its Jan. 5 meeting reviewing required and optional changes in the way it structures and elects city-government leadership.

Following a 45-minute discussion, the council passed by a 3-0 vote Charter Ordi?nance 19, which describes the state-mandated transition from spring elections to fall elections.

But the new city ordinance retains the current council size, term length and representation model.

?What the legislature approved was a change to having a process where all elections occur in the fall,? City Administrator Larry Paine said at the start.

?They did not tell us that we had to change the length of our terms, or how the elections would be held, whether by wards or at-large. We have some options to choose from here.

?This is a major change, and it?s complicated,? he added.

Paine said even though the League of Kansas Muni?cipalities had provided cities with a sample ordinance to adapt, it had taken him several days to craft a draft that he sensed would reflect the council?s preferences regarding the optional changes.

On the mandatory requirement of fall elections, Paine used current office-holders to illustrate the transition.

Paine said council seats currently occupied by Byron McCarty and Brent Driggers will be on the ballot in April, which will be the city?s last spring election. Those seats would be on the ballot again in November 2018; winners would begin the new term the second Monday of Janu?ary 2019.

Council seats currently filled by Bob Wat?son and David Loewen, plus the office of mayor, previously would have expired in April 2017, but their terms will be extended to the second Monday of January 2018. They would need to be re-elected in the November 2017 election to continue their service after that.

Optional decisions

Aside from moving to fall elections, Paine said his draft of Charter Ordinance 19 reflected the status quo in regard to the number of council members, length of terms and the constituents who elect them.

? Council size. Paine said Hillsboro, legally defined as a city of the second class, is allowed to have between four and 12 council members. In his experience, large councils are less efficient and less unified.

?From an administrative point of view, that is something I would not wish upon you,? he said.

Paine said the largest council he has worked with during his career had seven members, and it seemed every decision was by a 4-3 vote.

?If it was unanimous, then we wrote it down in our calendars,? he quipped.

Considering the occasional challenge to find people willing to serve on the council, the current group reaffirmed the model of a four-member council with an elected mayor who votes in case of a tie.

? Length of terms. Paine said the council could lengthen their term of service from two years to three or even four years, but the council affirmed the model of continuing with two-year staggered terms.

?I would be totally against making us have a longer length of terms,? Mayor Delores Dalke said, adding that two-year terms makes it easier to recruit people to fill unexpired terms.

?When we?ve had people resign for whatever reason, one of the questions I keep being asked is how long is the term,? she said. ?If I can say you?re filling out somebody?s term, and you?ll be up for election within a year, then you can decided what you want to do.

?If I had to say it?s three more years, I think that would cause a problem getting people to step in.?

? Representation. The question whether to stay with the current practice of electing two representatives from each of city?s two geographic wards generated the most discussion.

Watson said moving to an at-large model, where four council members would be elected from a city-wide pool of residents, appealed to him.

?We?re not that big a town,? Watson said. ?There?s been times where it?s been difficult to find somebody to run from this ward or that ward. You?d think it might be easier to find somebody from the whole town.?

He added, ?I don?t know that there?s any major differences between the east side and the west side. I don?t know of any reason not to (move to at-large), truthfully.?

Loewen said he was fine with the current two-ward system.

?I don?t see a big need to change, unless the mayor feels there?s a difficulty (find?ing candidates),? he said.

Paine said from an administrator?s perspective, he didn?t see much of an advantage between one model or the other.

?In the context of a community our size, we don?t do projects based on whether they?re in the West Ward or the East Ward,? he said, adding that the issue might be more significant in larger cities where geographic rivalries sometimes surface.

Paine suggested the ordinance continue the two-ward model for now and see if Hillsboro residents express interest in changing to the at-large model.

?Today?s the first time there?s been any open discussion about that,? he said. ?If it?s a question that people in the community want to address, they?ll be able to come to you and say, ?Hey, let?s do that.?

?Or they can come here (to a meeting) and voice their opinion on that.?

The council agreed to retain the two-ward model for the time being.

Because the boundaries of wards are based on equal population, Dalke said it?s probably time to ask the county clerk?s office to do an official recount because the city?s population growth has shifted from the east side to the west side in recent years.

Emergency plan

Later in the meeting, the council deferred action on Ordinance 1266, which would have updated several sections of the municipal code to reflect the changes prescribed in Charter Ord?inance 19.

The focus of discussion was an unusual section in the code outlining a plan for reconstituting city government leadership in the event of a catastrophe where all or a majority of the council are fatally injured or incapacitated.

The existing code describes how appointed city staff?such as police chief and fire chief?would assume the duties of council members.

?I don?t know how previous councils came up with putting something like this in the code, but they considered the possibility of the majority of the council being incapacitated,? Paine said.

His primary concern with the existing code was that it did not state a limit to the length of time a staff person could serve as an interim council member. Paine suggested the limit be the next election.

But Dalke questioned whether such a plan was even necessary.

?What you?re saying is that all the people that are appointments become the people who become council people,? she said. ?That doesn?t make good sense either.?

Watson asked about conflict of interest if a city staff member also serves as council member.

?As an employee, voting on our own salary, that would be a problem,? Paine said. ?One thing I do know is that a member of the staff cannot serve on the governing body of the town that they work in. What we?re looking at is, in the case of an emergency, how do we transition back to normal government??

The Greensburg tornado was cited as an example of a situation where an emergency plan could be helpful, but Dalke wasn?t convinced.

?If we stayed in wards, chances would be good we wouldn?t all be together and all get blown away together,? she said. ?We?d be on opposite sides of town, so there should be somebody left of us who could probably step in and do something that makes sense.?

Paine pointed out one last oddity about the new election rules: People who wish to run for city council are required to file with the city clerk, but candidates wanting to run for mayor must file with the county clerk.

?This one was tricky since the legislature repealed KSA 25-2110, which applies to ?at-large? positions, and they did not repeal KSA 25-2110a, which deals with candidates elected by wards,? he said.

Dalke said: ?They messed this one up big time, didn?t they,? Dalke said. ?And they also set the filing fee on that one at $20, which has always been $5.?

Cost of living increase

The council approved 3-0 to implement the 3 percent cost-of-living salary increase the council had approved when the 2016 budget was compiled last summer.

?When we began 2015, we did not make any salary adjustments because I wanted to see the sales-tax effect of losing Alco and Heartland Foods,? Paine said.

?Wal-Mart has taken over the sales-tax contribution that we lost with the other two. In addition, I have seen an increase in Dale?s (Supermarket) sales tax.?

The previous salary adjustment for staff was a 1.5 percent cost of living increase in January 2014.

Paine also recommended a salary adjust for department heads Morgan Marler, Dale Dalke and Doug Sisk to bring them more in line with salaries of other department heads.

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