Charter Ordinance passes

The Council, in a Special Meeting, voted tonight 8-1 in favor of a Charter Ordinance that will reorganize City Government. Key points of the ordinance, which will be phased in over the next three years include: 1) changing the City from 4 Wards to 3Districts, 2) reducing the Governing Body from 8 Council Members + 1 Mayor to 6 Council Members + 1 Mayor, 3) increasing terms from two years to four years, 4) establishing term limits of 2 terms in one office, and 5) eliminating primary elections. The most vital aspect of the Ordinance is that the City will begin the process of redistricting to ensure equal population in each district to ensure equal and fair representation. Current Wards are greatly out of balance in population.
Changes to the Governing Body and elections will result in a savings of taxpayers dollars. As an example, in February 2008 a primary election was held for City Council. The election was because one Ward out of four had too many candidates and the General Election ballot had to be narrowed down to two candidates. It was the only election held in Sumner County and only 78 voters turned out at the polls. The cost of that election was $5200 taxpayer dollars.
This is not an isolated incident. This has repeated itself many times over the years. And because of two year staggered terms, there is a City election held every year. The election this past April was the only election held in Sumner County. Two of the four Wards were unopposed. A little over 300 people turned out at the polls, and again, the election cost over $5000.
By eliminating primaries, and by extending terms to four years, the City will only need to have an election every two years which will coincide with School Board elections and will be paid for out of the County Election Fund and not be the sole burden of Wellington taxpayers.
If future Council Members continue to redistrict every ten years after the census is completed, the citizens of Wellington will be ensured equal and fair representation in the future.