CC Minutes - 04/18/01 Work Session

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall April 18, 2001 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Pat Farr, Gary Rayor, Gary PapS, Bonny Bettman. CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting to order. A.Work Session: Quarterly Report From The Citizen Charter Review Committee Mary Walston of the Eugene City Manager's Office introduced members of the committee present, Jon Belcher, Ken Tollenaar, Virginia Thompson, Bob Cassidy, and Mitzi Colbath. She reminded the council of its formation of the committee and its charge to the committee. She reported that the committee had been meeting weekly since January 9 and was forwarding recommendations to the council regarding the number of wards and councilors and the method of voting. Ms. VValston said the committee was requesting further council direction on what role it would play in campaign finance, which was also an activity identified for further follow-up in the council's goals process. She said that the committee was also requesting direction on the scope of its charge as it related to Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB). Ms. VValston called the council's attention to options distributed prior to meeting related to instant runoff voting. Chair Jon Belcher presented the report. He distributed a handout to the council entitled Instant Runoff Voting, and advocated that the council ask the voters to adopt the method of voting. He provided an example of how instant runoff voting would work, using the Oregon governor's race of 1990; he suggested that the method could have produced a different result. Mr. Belcher said that the method provided for only one election, which would save candidates' money because they did not have to campaign twice for office in a runoff election. He also said in his opinion it would also save public money. In addition, the method would mean councilors would not have to wait from May to January of the following year to take office as elections would be held only once in November. Mr. Belcher said that another option afforded by instant runoff voting was the ability to have separate elections for the council and mayor, which would allow councilors to run for the office of mayor without having to give up their seats. He said that the method also addressed the perception that voting for a "spoiler" candidate was like throwing away one's vote; in instant runoff voting, voters can vote for all the candidates they want in the order they chose, which meant that MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 18, 2001 Page 1 Work Session