Ballot items aim at improving Cape's charter

In the April 4 election, aside from the local races there will also be on the ballot a request to update the Cape Girardeau city charter by making it more responsive and efficient in how we govern ourselves.

The recommendations we propose have been looked at seriously and long. Now it is up to the voters to decide in the best interests of our community.

The first ballot item maintains the ability to appoint an ethics commission upon a written, signed complaint, or it allows the city to immediately forward a complaint to the Missouri Ethics Commission for review.

This will give us an option on how to proceed.

The second ballot item concerns user fees as need and as part of the annual budget while maintaining a 5 percent cap on water, sewer and solid-waste collection fees. This will bring into line the fees needing adjustment at more than the current 5 percent limitation.

If the user fee for a certain activity were $1, the 5 percent rule would mean a maximum increase to $1.05 instead of an adjustment to whatever actual costs were incurred to provide this service.

Keep in mind that each increase for these services would still be subject to city council budget review and public input at that time. This should allow all user fees to be in line to cover each service's overhead without having a service operating at a deficit while the water, sewer and solid-waste fees remain under the 5 percent cap.

The third ballot item deals with filling city council vacancies. This would require the city council to fill vacancies within 60 days through applications submitted by residents of the vacant ward until an election can be held to fill the seat.

In each case, each ballot question requires a simple majority vote to pass and would go into effect immediately.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call any of the Charter Review Committee members. We would be glad to discuss these issues with you.

Thomas M. Meyer is chairman of the Cape Girardeau Charter Review Committee. Committee members are Ron Hahs, Chris Hutson, Jim Limbaugh, Dan Niswonger, Beckie Richey Mocherman and Kathy Swan.