CITY SET TO MOVE AHEAD WITH ZONE ELECTIONS

After extended debate Monday, the Cape Girardeau City Council agreed on a blueprint to implement ward-style council elections within a year.

Voters Nov. 3 approved by a 2-1 margin a plan to amend the City Charter and scrap at-large council elections in lieu of "zone" representation.

Mayor Gene Rhodes made a motion Monday that the council set a primary council election in February and the general election in April of next year.

"I'm concerned we need to get the process started to get the council elected from proper zones," Rhodes said.

But other council members said they were concerned that such action might be illegal and could invite a lawsuit. They said the zone boundaries approved by voters likely aren't legal according to the U.S. Supreme Court's "one-man, one-vote" rule to assure equal representation.

Councilman David Limbaugh also said that the measure voters approved used existing charter guidelines for the first zone election, which established the next council election in 1994.

Limbaugh said he favored resolving the legal issues as soon as possible so that voters can elect their representatives by legally drawn zones.

"I think clearly the public has spoken and I don't want to thwart their will at all," Limbaugh said.

But, he added, the ballot measure's vagueness and inherent legal problems can't simply be resolved by council action and implemented without resubmitting the changes to the voters.

Councilman Al Spradling III also said that Rhodes' timetable doesn't allow for the necessary 60-day filing period for nomination petitions council candidates must file according to the charter.

Limbaugh suggested the council appoint a task force made up of those who spearheaded the zone election issue. He said the members could meet with City Attorney Warren Wells and draft a legal charter amendment that could then be resubmitted to the voters.

Spradling supported his recommendation. "It's in everyone's best interest to come up with a charter commission to revamp the zones and revamp the whole issue," he said.

But Rhodes said the voters had spoken and it wasn't the council's role to "say whether something's legal or not.

"What bothers me more than anything else is we're using the council as a court of law arguing over legalities," he said. "We aren't a court here. I talked to three lawyers who said it's absolutely legal the way it is."

Councilman Doug Richards said he also wanted the process expedited, but that he didn't want the proposal implemented if it was illegal.

After Richards suggested a task force be appointed to try to resolve the legal issues and have a new ballot measure prepared by February for an April election, Rhodes withdrew his motion.

The action came after the council and attorney Kevin Spaeth debated whether the issue needed to be resubmitted to voters.

Rhodes then appointed to the board several members of the audience who worked on the campaign for the issue.

But Councilman Mary Wulfers objected to the appointment of the ad hoc committee and asked that potential applicants for the group have until the next council meeting to submit applications.

When Wells recommended the committee get started as soon as possible, the council agreed to Rhodes' appointments but left the board open for additional applicants during the next four weeks.

The group is expected to meet regularly to redraft the zone election issue and submit the issue to voters in April, which would allow for new council elections next fall.