For the week of September 18 - 24, 2002

Citizens plead for advisory ballot

Council stands firm on tabling issue

---

By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

A half dozen Ketchum citizens pleaded to no avail Monday for the Ketchum City Council to reconsider its decision two weeks earlier to put off an advisory election that would clarify the public’s wishes on how the city should conduct city council elections.

Citizens reminded the city council that it made a unanimous decision Feb. 19 to seek citizen advice on the city’s long-standing election controversy, which pits an at-large voting system against a per-seat system.

But the council unanimously voted two weeks ago to put off an advisory election pending research and public education efforts on a variety of election procedures. The decision, and reportedly inflammatory exchanges between council members and the mayor, got citizens’ attention.

"You said you’d do it," Ketchum resident Anne Corrock said. "You’ve said it since February."

Only Councilman Maurice Charlat appeared willing to reverse his vote of two weeks earlier.

"I do believe we literally promised to do this," he said. "I see no reason for us to hold up."

However, the city only has until Sept. 20 to decide on language for the advisory ballot and submit it to the county to ask the question this November. Additionally, the Feb. 19 vote did not specify a date during which an advisory election should be held, according to the meeting’s minutes.

The majority of council members said there is too little time to hold the advisory vote this fall.

"Two weeks ago, it was too soon to do it, and now we’re being asked to do it in three days," Council President Randy Hall said.

While Hall said the city would risk conducting the election without proper public education if it pushes for a November question, Charlat contended that the coming month is plenty of time.

"There isn’t a lot of work to do," Charlat said. "There has already been a tremendous amount of discussion."

The election debate surfaced in the winter of 2001 when the city council unanimously voted, with Charlat absent, to change the city’s voting procedures to a per-seat system from an at-large system. Charlat and a handful of citizens have since championed a return to the at-large system or an advisory vote indicating which method Ketchum citizens prefer.

Except for the Feb. 19 vote, the majority of the council has not swayed.

Grounding arguments in the unfairness of so-called bullet voting, where voters intentionally cast one rather than two votes in an at-large format, the city’s leaders, with Charlat and Mayor Ed Simon as exceptions, maintained that the new, per-seats system is most fair.

Since the debate’s beginning, references have been made to the city’s 1999 election, in which Charlat and Hall both easily won in an at-large format against incumbent Councilwoman Sue Noel.

In that election, according to a ballot count performed by the Mountain Express, 747 residents voted and were permitted two votes each. Charlat obtained 98 single votes; Hall received 48 and Noel received 27. (The city’s total tally included an additional ballot).

It is impossible to determine how many of the candidates’ single votes were cast intentionally (making them bullets), but Hall argues that the difference between candidates indicates some level of organization.

"We now know exactly how many bullet votes we have and who is the recipient of those bullet votes," Hall said. "That is information we did not have in February.

"Do 559 people want their votes to count as much as the 173 people who bullet voted? The answer has got to be a resounding: ‘Hell yes.’ It’s just got to be."

Despite Hall’s contention, Charlat, the leading recipient of single votes in 1999, said he "absolutely" was not aware of any organized bullet voting campaign on his behalf, if one occurred at all.

The numbers debate notwithstanding, Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said advisory ballots are generally not used to help craft public policy.

In 24 years as a city and town manager in municipalities around the country, he said he encountered only one advisory ballot. Grotton, Conn., where he was most recently employed before Ketchum, had a legal opinion preventing advisory ballots, he said.

Citizens were clearly agitated Monday night at the council’s refusal to push for a November advisory vote.

"This is just a simple thing. Up or down? Designated seat or open seat?" Sun Valley citizen Milt Adam said.

Ketchum citizen Rod Sievers encouraged the council to at least set a date for a referendum election.

"If you don’t set a date in concrete, it won’t get done," he said. "Let’s get it done."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.