COUNCIL LIKELY WILL DECIDE DEC. 21 ON COMMITTEE TO AMEND CHARTER

The Cape Girardeau City Council likely will complete the appointment of members to a Charter Amendment Committee at its Dec. 21 meeting.

The committee was authorized at the Nov. 16 council meeting to determine how to implement the concept of electing council members by zones, which was approved at the Nov. 3 general election. Council members are presently elected at-large.

According to the motion by Councilman Doug Richards, citizens wanting to serve on the committee have until Dec. 14 to submit board summary sheets in order to be considered. The sheets are standard requirements by the council for citizens seeking to be appointed to advisory boards and can be obtained at City Hall in the city manager's office.

"I think to be fair to all the citizens that might want to serve, there needed to be a 30-day period for applications to be submitted," said Richards. "I think it is important that people who served on the original petition drive, especially their officers, need to automatically be part of the committee. But we also need to bring in others as well."

Mayor Gene Rhodes recommended that anyone at the meeting interested in being appointed to the committee should raise their hands. Based on that, he moved that Dr. Bernice Coar-Cobb, Lawrence Godfrey, Opal McManus, Thomas M. Meyer, Kevin Spaeth, Michael Sterling, Anthony Wilson and Councilman Melvin Kasten be named to the group.

Godfrey, McManus, and Sterling were members of the original petitioning committee that got the zone issue put on the ballot. Two other members of that committee, Miki Gudermuth and Joe Mirgeaux, have submitted board summary sheets to the city clerk.

The council has not yet determined the size of the committee or specifically what its charge should be.

Councilman David Limbaugh said it is possible the issue could be addressed Monday night. "I think it is very likely that we would talk about the structure of the committee Monday, but we can't appoint anybody until the time has passed for all applications to be submitted," said Limbaugh.

Richards said in making his motion that he anticipated the committee having eight to 12 members, but that would be up to the full council to decide.

"This is obviously going to have a major impact on the city, and the more diverse type people we get involved, the better the outcomes will be," said Richards.

Rhodes said he is unsure how large the committee should be, but "If you get it too large you can't get anything done."

There have been some legal questions about when the zones can be implemented in the city. Richards said the council owes it to citizens to resolve the legal issues quickly.

Said Richards: "People presently feel they want zones; that message was clearly sent on Nov. 3. I do think we need to be as expedient as possible in carrying out the citizens' wishes.

"The purpose of this committee is to work with the city legal department, and between the task force and legal department, we can work out all these issues. We need to do an effective job working out the legal problems."

Richards and Rhodes have somewhat different views of what people were saying when they voted in favor of electing council members by zones.

Rhodes said there was a combination of reasons for zone elections passing, including discontent with the present city council and city officials, a desire to elect people from neighborhoods, and a desire to cut costs of council elections.

"I think there are so many problems out there people want to get done," said Rhodes. "There is a lot of discontent out there."

But Rhodes also said voters have in effect fired the city council.

"I felt like not legally, but technically, the citizens fired the city council because, for whatever reasons, they want people to be elected from their individual neighborhoods," said Rhodes.

Richards, however, said he did not view the Nov. 3 as an attempt to remove the present council.

"It is obviously a clear mandate and a clear voice by the people saying they want an elect-a-neighbor approach by zones," said Richards. "But I never once heard recall mentioned or trying to oust the present city council."

Others who have submitted applications so far to serve on the committee are Dr. Peter Bergerson, Dr. David Kaelin, Kenneth Richardson and Larry Trickey.