Commission to review Cedar Rapids’ charter, form of government

CEDAR RAPIDS - Is nine the best number of members for the City Council? Should the mayor be a full-timer? Can you imagine a return to five, full-time council members who also manage city departments?

Those are apt to be some of the topics discussed by the Charter Review Commission, which the City Council Tuesday night said it will create at its Jan. 28 meeting.

The city's Home Rule Charter, approved by voters in June 2005, requires the council to create the commission in 2011 and every 10 years after that to review the charter and make recommendations, if any, to change it.

Last night, the council said any recommendations to significantly change the charter would be put to a vote of the public.

Council members seemed to agree with council member Justin Shields, who said that minor changes to the current charter could be voted on by the council without a citizen vote.

Each of the nine council members will name a person to what will be a nine-member commission. The five council members elected by district will name someone from his or her district to give the commission a geographic balance while at-large members will make choices with an eye to ensuring gender and age balance.

Council member Pat Shey suggested that the review commission include some representation from the 15-member Home Rule Charter Commission that met in 2004 and 2005 to come up with a proposed city charter, which voters approved overwhelmingly in June 2005.

Among possible points of discussion for the review commission could be these:

Should the City Council have nine members, including the mayor, with five elected in council districts and four, including the mayor, elected by voters citywide?

The election of the nine council members is now staggered so voters pick six members, including the mayor, in one election cycle and three members in the subsequent election cycle two years later. All serve four-year terms. Would a 5-4 stagger be better?

The current city charter establishes what is commonly referred to as a “weak-mayor” form of government because the mayor, like the other council members, serves part-time, votes like other council members and has no veto power. A full-time, professional city manager runs the day-to-day operation of the city.

The Charter Review Commission likely will discuss other forms of government, including a “strong-mayor” form in which the mayor serves full time and the commission form, which the city of Cedar Rapids had in place for nearly a century until voters in 2005 replaced it with the current form. The commission form of government in Cedar Rapids featured five, full-time commissioners who managed certain areas of city government and sat as City Council members.

For his part, Mayor Ron Corbett has said he does not favor significant changes to the existing charter. For instance, the mayor thinks the existing council with nine members provides residents with good representation, a thought at-large council member Don Karr agreed with in the council discussion last night.

Shields noted that the Charter Review Commission doesn't have to recommend any changes.