DEC. 4 SET FOR CHARTER CHOICES; COMMITTEE SAYS CHANGES WOULD LEAD TO BETTER GOVERNMENT

The Cape Girardeau City Council will decide Dec. 4 which amendments to the city charter will be placed on the April ballot.

Charter Review Committee members urged the council Monday to put eight measures on the ballot.

Committee members want:

-- An ethics commission that would investigate any allegations of ethical violations by city officials.

-- A debt provision that requires the city to clearly spell out its debt.

-- The city to establish an emergency reserve fund, repay loans between city funds within each fiscal year unless otherwise authorized by the council, and operate enterprise funds without deficit spending.

-- To prohibit the city from raising any fee or tax more than 5 percent a year without voter approval.

-- To limit councilmen and the mayor to two consecutive, full terms.

-- To lower the residency requirement for all council positions, including mayor.

-- To add a preamble to the charter that says public officials are expected to avoid conflicts of interest.

-- To amend provisions on granting city franchises.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the council at its next meeting will vote separately on each of the committee's ballot proposals.

Committee members said the proposed changes to the charter would improve Cape Girardeau's city government.

Council members have been cold to the idea of an ethics commission.

At a City Hall study session prior to the regular council meeting, committee members urged the council to let voters decide the issue.

Committee members said a council-appointed ethics commission would be a safeguard for both city officials and the public. It would provide a way to address questions of impropriety, they said.

Paul Stehr, a former mayor of Cape Girardeau and committee chairman, said it is difficult for councils to police themselves.

Keith Russell, committee member, said the council would decide whether to accept any recommendations made by the ethics commission in any case.

"You folks ultimately are the watchdog; you control the process," he said.

Russell said ethics commissions have worked well in other cities, including Creve Coeur in St. Louis County.

The committee proposed lowering the residency requirement from four years to one year for all council seats.

But committee members said a two-year requirement, favored by some members of the council, would be acceptable.

"The general trend is to make it less restrictive for people to run for office," committee member David Barklage said.