1979-11-28 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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. e . Regular Meeting 11/28/79 8 13. DISCUSS CHARTER REVISION (CONTINUED) - Prepared Statement (Continued) One of the areas to be changed is the method of election of the representatives of the people. When such a change is contemplated, the Voting Rights Acts of 1975 requires "pre- clearance" from the United States Justice Department -- that is... before we make the change we must ask if we can do it the way we want to. When a proposed change is submitted to Justice, a 60-day period begins, during which the Attorney General must decide whether to disapprove the change, or to "offer no objection at this time." If Justice requests additional information, a new 60-day waiting period begins upon their receipt of the information. In preparation for our submission to Justice, citizens went door-to-door conducting a census. The results were tallied and charted on maps. This has been time consuming, but necessary in order to document our plan for the needed changes. We have now already made two separate submissions to Justice, both of which are pending approval. . The first involves the concept of a council-manager form of government with four single-member districts, two counci1persons at-large and the mayor. Both the Committee and the Commission held public hearings on this plan and it was received by Justice on August 13. In response to an informal request, we sent additional information on September 28. They formally requested additional information at the end of the 60-day period, which we supplied, beginning a new 60-day period. This is the last delay that Justice is allowed to make on this submission. We should receive an answer by January 3, 1980. The second submission assumes approval of the first submission and proposes specific district boundary lines. Several public hearings were held on the placement of the lines and the submission was made on October 26. Justice will have until December 26 to reply, if their response is positive. However, they can, as on the first submission, request additional information and thereby delay as long as until March 5, 1980. Since we must have Justice Department preclearance approval before our election, it is practically impossible to have a charter election in January of 180, as planned. The Commission has moved judiciously and with all appropriate speed. We are now simply waiting on the Federal bureaucracy." . + + +