COUNCIL TO CONSIDER CHARTER CHANGES

The Cape Girardeau City Council decided in September to give voters a chance to amend the city charter next April.

The council will discuss just what amendments should be put on the April 2 ballot when it meets tonight with the Charter Review Committee.

Voter approval is required to amend the charter. The council must decide by Feb. 6 if it wants to place any charter amendments on the ballot.

The committee has recommended 10 amendments to the city's governing document, including creation of an ethics commission and limiting council and mayoral terms.

But the City Council earlier this year balked at the suggestion of creating an ethics commission.

At its retreat last April, the council informally revised some of the recommendations and suggested it would place five items on a future ballot. The five would:

-- Prohibit the mayor and councilmen from serving more than two, consecutive, full terms. It also would impose a two-year residency requirement for council posts. The four-year residency requirement would remain in effect for the mayor's post.

-- Regulate the municipal government's loans between city funds.

-- Require disclosure of all city government debt.

-- Amend utility franchise regulations.

-- Add a preamble to the charter that calls for ethical behavior on the part of city officials and employees.

The charter committee unanimously supported six proposed amendments including creation of an ethics commission.

"I believe the council has an obligation to put on the ballot certainly what was unanimously decided by the committee," said Loretta Schneider, a charter committee member.

She said the council should let the voters decide the issue.

But Mayor Al Spradling III said, "The council has to make the ultimate decision as to what they feel is appropriate to go on the ballot."

The council won't put an amendment on the ballot that it doesn't favor, he said.

If citizens feel strongly about an issue, they can go the initiative petition route to get it on the ballot, Spradling said.

The mayor said there already is a state ethics commission that has the power to investigate elected officials.

Spradling said the charter stipulates that council members shouldn't vote on city matters that would leave them with a financial conflict of interest.

Councilman Richard Eggimann said an ethics commission investigation could damage the reputation of honest officials.

"They seem to get marked for the rest of their career even if they are innocent," he said.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer said earlier this year that creation of an ethics commission could lead to a witch hunt.

The Charter Review Committee, however, sees it as a way to deal with any future complaints abut conflicts of interest involving the council or other city officials.

The committee wants a seven-member ethics committee, whose members would be appointed by the council. The committee would investigate any allegations of ethical violations on the part of city officials and issue a written report of its findings.

The written report would be presented to the council and made public. The council would have 30 days to take action on a complaint, and accept, reject or modify any of the commission's recommendations.

Schneider said the city needs an ethics commission because councils don't do a good job of policing their own members.

Keith Russell, a Charter Review member, said he never thought the council would be so opposed to an ethics commission.

"That was just an item that we considered a slam dunk," he said.

The charter committee had suggested lowering the residency requirement for council members, excluding the mayor, from four years to one.

But council members previously have suggested a two-year requirement.

Eggimann doesn't want to lower the residency requirement at all. He said a person who has only been a resident of the city for a year doesn't have a good handle on what is happening in a community.