The City of Crookston Charter Committee meeting lasted less than 20 minutes Monday night. Councilman Dale Stainbrook called the meeting to order, filling in for Mayor Wayne Melbye. The two topics of discussion were holding a primary and authority to recall council member or mayor.
City Administrator Shannon Stassen told the committee there have been several questions about the City holding a primary when there are more than two candidates. In order to do this, the City would need to amend the charter to hold the primary, mainly because it would change the dates of filing. Both Stainbrook and Councilman Steve Erickson expressed concern that a more drawn out process could deter people from running and committee member Dan Johanneck added, “It’s a good problem to have choices if this were going to deter people from running, I’d be against it.” Stassen said he thought it was a good decision. “We’ve had upwards of five candidates in the last two elections, so it was a question that has been brought up fairly frequently,” Stassen added, “People think it is good to have choices and the length of adding a primary may deter candidates.”
The second topic was on the ability to recall a member of council or a mayor. Currently there is limited authority for recall available to the council outside of Chapter 2, Section 2.05, Vacancies of the City Charter.
“An elective office becomes vacant when the person elected or appointed to the office dies before taking office or fails to qualify, or the incumbent dies, resigns in writing filed with the City Administrator, is convicted of a felony, ceases to reside in the City, is adjudged incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction, or misses six consecutive official Council meetings without good cause. In each such case, the Council may, by resolution of a majority vote of five Council Members, or four Council Members and the Mayor or Assistant Mayor in the event of a tie, declare the vacancy to exist and may appoint an eligible person to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired term.”
While members didn’t have the charter in front of them, Chris Fee asked for clarification that, “right now if someone commits a felony you can rid of them for that,” before Johanneck was able to reference the correct section regarding vacancies.
“There are some very specific reasons outlined in the charter already, so the commission saw fit to leave things as they are,” said Stassen. “It serves the community well and is adequate to keep us protected.”
