CAPE GIVES APPROVAL TO ZONES VOTING

A citizen-backed initiative that started this summer culminated Tuesday with Cape Girardeau voters approving by a two-thirds margin a switch to zone representation on the city council.

The ballot initiative will amend the City Charter and scrap at-large council elections. Instead, six council members will be elected from their respective city wards or zones.

The measure passed by a vote of 8,601-4,475, or 66 percent to 34 percent.

Lawrence Godfrey, who spearheaded a drive that secured more than 1,700 petitions in favor of the switch, said Tuesday night he was pleased with the results.

"I think the people pretty much made a mandate out of it," Godfrey said. "I'm happy about that."

Current councilmen who opposed the charter amendment and switch in council elections said they thought a general discontentment with government among voters led to overwhelming support for the measure.

"It's sort of been the theme of the whole election year; the theme of change," said Councilman Al Spradling III. "It's been one of the most unique years I can remember."

Councilman David Limbaugh said he wasn't surprised the charter amendment passed Tuesday.

"I predicted it would," he said. "I just think there's a mood of discontentment. I think people are disgusted with the status quo, and city government is as much a part of that as state and federal government."

City officials have said the zone elections proposal will have to be further changed because the zone boundaries as established in the charter amendment won't assure equal representation.

Cape Girardeau City Attorney Warren Wells has said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such zones must be drawn to reflect a nearly equal number of people of voting age.

But the zones drawn up in the petition initiative simply combined two or three existing voting wards, which are based on convenience for city voters in various sections of town.

"Obviously, there are some major legal deficits in it," Spradling said. "The city's going to have to redo the wards completely because they're not anywhere near equal."

Because any boundary changes would include an amendment to the City Charter, Spradling said the new zones would require another vote of the people.

"There are also special problems built into it that we haven't heard too much about like annexation, and where you're going to put new city property," he added.

But Tom M. Meyer, who helped the campaign to make the council representation switch, said the overwhelming support for the measure is a clear indication the public favors the change.

"It's hard to ignore a two-thirds voice," he said. "The people who worked on it put their hearts in it. They wanted to elect their neighbor and have a voice in city government.

"I'm pleased they were so successful. Now, they'll expect it to move forward."

Limbaugh said that although he was "disappointed" and thought the charter change "will not be in the city's best interest," he agreed that the voters had sent a clear message.

"The public has spoken, and we'll just have to work it through," he said. "The illegalities with it now are irrelevant.

"I don't think it's a wise decision, but I accept it graciously."

Limbaugh said the current council is one that's had to make many controversial decisions, which might have contributed to the public's willingness to embrace change.

"I think this city council is particularly in disfavor," he said. "We've had to make some hard decisions. It doesn't surprise me that we have a popular vote which basically announces they're not happy with what's going on."

Meyer and Godfrey said they believe zone representation will help "open lines of communication" between all segments of the community and city government.

"I think that the people want to be better represented on the city council, and they felt this was the best way to accomplish that," said Godfrey. "That's what we've been preaching in our campaign.

"I just hope that everybody will turn around and work with us on this."