Group wants to explore charter government for Cape County

St. Louis County did it.

So did St. Charles and Jackson counties. Now two more counties, Jefferson and Franklin, are considering moving to a charter form of government.

This week, John Mehner used his "Business Today" column to announce an informal agreement with the League of Women Voters and the Jackson Chamber of Commerce to explore a charter for Cape Girardeau County.

"Our government and public policy committee here started looking at a county chart months and months and months ago," said Mehner, president and chief executive officer of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Part of the reason, he said, it that the city of Cape Girardeau's charter seems to work well.

But that doesn't constitute an endorsement. Mehner said initial meetings will focus on fact-finding.

"If it was a slam dunk with no drawbacks, it shouldn't have failed in the counties where it failed," he said.

In Boone County, two charter efforts have failed in 1982 and 1996.

Jefferson County's three previous charter attempts, in 1972, 1986 and 1996, failed.

As the fourth attempt gains steam, opponents are not shy about expressing their opinions, said Ed Kemp, District 1 commissioner. He said one bumper sticker declares that no matter how it's sliced "charter government is still baloney."

The constitution must be approved by voters before the end of this year. A draft version is online for public comment through August at www.jeffcocharter.org.

Mehner said the a local constitution is not a reaction to recent county troubles that caused County Auditor David Ludwig to face potential expulsion from office for misusing his county computer or the legal wrangling among the county's three commissioners over open meetings and record keeping.

"We don't go into it with preconceived notion of what's good and what's bad. It's a very eyes-wide-open on what would be the pros and what would be the cons," Mehner said.

Mehner said no formal meeting dates have been confirmed yet, but that's the next step in the process. He said he was not sure if the first meetings would be public or not, though "I don't know that I would be opposed to it. Eventually it's all got to be done in public. We're not that far down the road. We're not that far down the road on this at all."

Kemp, running for his third term of office, suggested that the proposed seven-member board would dilute the power of voters, slow county business and cost taxpayers more, partly in the price of making the transition but also because more support workers would be needed to for day-to-day administrative duties.

"It's six of one and a half-dozen of the other," he said. "If you want to live in a rural setting and want to be left alone you're not for charter. If you don't mind following a bunch of rules and regulations and having people tell you what to do, or want to be able to call and complain because someone's playing loud music late at night, you want a charter."

Kemp sees the charter as an unnecessary layer of government.

In Franklin County, seven Republicans and seven Democrats were just named to a commission to draft a constitution. District 1 commissioner Terry Wilson said the charter drive is the culmination of intermittent discussions dating back nearly 15 years.

"Our thoughts were, rather than going through the petition process, just put it on the ballot and let the people decide," said Wilson, also running for a third term of office. "I think the people need to make that decision. I mean, there's pros and cons. I've worked in local government where you've had a city council of nine. Sometimes there're issues there, too."

Franklin County is home to 100,000 and abuts St. Charles, St. Louis and Jefferson counties.

He said the downside of changing the government will be the cost, a figure impossible to estimate.

"So much depends on how they write the constitution," he said. "If they have a group of commissioners and they're full-time, it'll grow exponentially."

But he's not ready to support or oppose the charter movement.

"Until they write [the constitution], I don't know," he said. "I've told people I may stand up in the middle of a meeting and say I'm not voting for it or I may stand mute and let everybody go for it."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

Does this affect you?

Have a comment?

Log onto semisourian.com/today