Hailey voters are another step closer to being asked whether the city should be led by a mayor or a city manager.
Former Hailey Mayor Al Lindley filed with the city Monday an initiative petition that essentially demands the city put the question to a vote of its residents.
Lindley still has one more step to complete before his petition is finalized, however. Lindley's filing this week is technically a preliminary filing that is legally required to initiate a petition drive.
Once City Clerk Heather Dawson certifies that the minimum 20 signatures on the preliminary filing are valid—which she did Tuesday—the petitioner is then given a deadline by which to submit additional signatures.
In his case, Lindley now has 75 days to gather the required 17 signatures from qualified Hailey voters for the petition to be certified as complete, Dawson said.
The number of signatures required is a figure equal to 20 percent of the number of voters who participated in the last city election. Only 85 votes were cast in the city's November 2005 election.
Any registered Hailey voter, including those who signed Lindley's original petition, can sign the new petition, Dawson said.
"There's no restrictions on who can sign going forward," Dawson said.
In the event that Lindley is able to gather the required signatures and have them certified as valid, the question will then be put to a vote of Hailey residents during one of two upcoming elections on May 23 or Aug. 1.
For the vote to take place on May 23, Lindley must have his initiative petition certified as valid by 5 p.m. Friday, March 31, so the election can be properly noticed in newspapers on April 5. Lindley has until 5 p.m. on June 9 to have his initiative petition certified as valid for the Aug. 1 election.
Approval of the proposed change from a mayor/city council form of government to a city manager/city council government would only require favorable votes by a simple majority of Hailey voters, Dawson said.
A yes vote on the matter wouldn't be the end of the story, however. Within 60 days of being approved, a special election to select a new five-member city council would take place.
It would then be up to the new city council to select and hire a city manager who would take on the chief executive role formerly held by the mayor. The city would continue to have a mayor—appointed by the new city council or, if the council chooses, by a vote of the electorate—but that individual would have a greatly diminished role in the new government.
