Jackson aldermen table talk of charter government

Two months ago, at the Jackson Board of Aldermen’s annual retreat, it seemed as if the city was headed down a path toward creating a charter form of government.

At that time, city attorney Tom Ludwig alluded to a variety of reasons why Jackson should consider becoming a “charter city” as more than 40 other Missouri municipalities — including Cape Girardeau — have done since 1908.

“When I started working on this, I thought this was something we ought to do,” Ludwig told the aldermen at their study session Monday night. “And I was really excited the board was giving me the opportunity to look into this.”

Now, he’s not so sure.

“I’ve gone from being somebody who totally believed this was, for Jackson, our next step moving forward and something we should consider to coming 180 degrees,” he said. “A year ago, I thought it was absolutely the best thing for Jackson, but now I’m not going to stand here and recommend it to you.”

Ludwig explained that after researching the charter concept, he saw little advantages to it over Jackson’s current government structure and said change for the sake of change isn’t necessarily a good thing for the community.

“There was a big movement during the ’80s and ’90s (in Missouri) to become charter cities and quite a few (18 communities during those decades) did that,” he said. “One of the reasons was that fourth-class cities couldn’t do a hotel/motel tax and if they wanted to they had to become a charter city first, but the state legislature changed that a few years back and authorized fourth-class cities to put a hotel/motel tax before the voters.”

Cape Girardeau adopted a home-rule charter form of government in 1981.

At this point, Ludwig said, there is very little a charter city can do a fourth-class community, such as Jackson, cannot.

“I cannot point at something we need to do that we can’t do as a fourth-class city,” he told the aldermen. “It’s not there. I’ve looked under every rug and overturned every rock to find you a good example of what you could do if you were a home-rule charter city because, as I said, I started off believing for 15 years this was the thing to do. I looked for that good example, but I don’t have it for you.”

However, he said there appear to be some disadvantages, including the cost of becoming a charter community.

“For example, in 1980 the cost to St. Charles to put together their charter city program was $12,000,” he said, noting that in today’s dollars the cost would be much higher. “You’re going to spend money on supporting the charter commission, for legal support and secretarial support, things of that nature, you’re going to need to distribute the charter around to the citizens so they know what they’re voting on, and you’ll have the cost of an informational program. All of those would be expenses, plus the cost of an election, so the cost of a charter campaign would be fairly substantial.”

And then there’s the possibility, he said, that a charter commission could make “radical” changes in the way the city is governed.

“Once you start the charter commission, they will write what they want to write,” he said. “For instance, the commission may decide they want to eliminate the city administrator or elect the administrator or do things that limit the passing of ordinances.”

Ludwig suggested the aldermen “keep this in your desk drawer or back pocket and if there is something that comes up, this is certainly a process you can go through” in the future.

Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs agreed and said any changes in the city’s charter would require a community vote.

“Things change and you have to go back to the voters to change the charter and that’s not always easy,” he said. “It’s a challenge to change a charter, no matter how good a job you do the first time through.”

Alderman Paul Sander asked Ludwig if he thought it would make any difference to “the rank and file citizen” if Jackson adopted a charter form of government.

“I would say, more than likely, it would not make a difference,” Ludwig answered. “If there were some radical things that came out of our charter commission and if the voters approved that charter, then it would definitely affect them, but barring that, the rank and file of our city won’t know if we’re a charter city or a fourth-class city.”

Although the aldermen did not take a formal vote on the matter, the consensus among them was to table the charter government discussion indefinitely.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea at this time,” commented Alderman Larry Cunningham. “I don’t see any advantages for us to do it.”

Alderman Joe Bob Baker concurred: “For over 200 years we’ve operated with this (the current) form of government and I think its worked well.”

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