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Independence, MO —
Jackson County voters won’t see County Charter changes on the ballot this fall.
The task force that has spent the summer looking at three issues is drawing up its report to the County Legislature and is expected to vote on it during its last likely meeting on July 30.
County Executive Mike Sanders appointed the group in May and asked it to look at three things:
• Limits on contributions to candidates for county office. Missouri voters approved limits several years ago, but the Missouri General Assembly repealed them. County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, a former state representative, talked to the task force about the influence of money in politics and called contribution limits essential to good government.
However, the county counselor’s office also has looked into the charter-change issues for the task force and determined that campaign contribution limits are a state, not local, matter. Any change would have to come from Jefferson City.
• Term limits for county elective offices – the nine legislators, the county executive, the sheriff and the prosecutor.
“I think we are headed in the direction of not recommending term limits,” the task force chair, Dianne Cleaver, said Friday.
Task force members have discussed the issue at some length and expressed skepticism about whether they make for better government.
“Look at the General Assembly,” task force member Paul G. Rojas, himself a state legislator back in the 1970s, said at the group’s meeting on Monday.
Attorney Buford Farrington said he generally agreed but said executive offices – county executive, sheriff, prosecutor – are different. Presidents and Missouri governors are limited to two terms. Farrington suggested three terms for the three county positions, but that motion barely failed. The group voted 3-3, and Cleaver broke the tie, voting no.
She opposes terms limits generally on philosophical grounds.
“I believe we keep trying to solve one problem by doing something else,” she said.
After Farrington’s motion failed, the group voted unanimously to make no recommendation on the issue.
• Much of the group’s time at this week’s meeting was spent on the order in which names appear on the ballot for county offices. In Jackson County, names appear in the order in which candidates file, and many candidates believe being first can make a small but sometimes crucial difference.
By state law, that first-in, first-on rule is at the discretion of County Clerk Mary Jo Spino, though Sanders has raised concerns that the clerk answers to the nine elected county legislators. Spino told the task force she’s seen few if any problems. The issue, as the task force has come to understand it, is not who’s first in line at Spino’s office on the second floor of the downtown Courthouse at 8 a.m. on the first day of filing but rather who might have an advantage in getting into the building ahead of others in the first place.
Jackson County voters won’t see County Charter changes on the ballot this fall.
The task force that has spent the summer looking at three issues is drawing up its report to the County Legislature and is expected to vote on it during its last likely meeting on July 30.
County Executive Mike Sanders appointed the group in May and asked it to look at three things:
• Limits on contributions to candidates for county office. Missouri voters approved limits several years ago, but the Missouri General Assembly repealed them. County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, a former state representative, talked to the task force about the influence of money in politics and called contribution limits essential to good government.
However, the county counselor’s office also has looked into the charter-change issues for the task force and determined that campaign contribution limits are a state, not local, matter. Any change would have to come from Jefferson City.
• Term limits for county elective offices – the nine legislators, the county executive, the sheriff and the prosecutor.
“I think we are headed in the direction of not recommending term limits,” the task force chair, Dianne Cleaver, said Friday.
Task force members have discussed the issue at some length and expressed skepticism about whether they make for better government.
“Look at the General Assembly,” task force member Paul G. Rojas, himself a state legislator back in the 1970s, said at the group’s meeting on Monday.
Attorney Buford Farrington said he generally agreed but said executive offices – county executive, sheriff, prosecutor – are different. Presidents and Missouri governors are limited to two terms. Farrington suggested three terms for the three county positions, but that motion barely failed. The group voted 3-3, and Cleaver broke the tie, voting no.
She opposes terms limits generally on philosophical grounds.
“I believe we keep trying to solve one problem by doing something else,” she said.
After Farrington’s motion failed, the group voted unanimously to make no recommendation on the issue.
• Much of the group’s time at this week’s meeting was spent on the order in which names appear on the ballot for county offices. In Jackson County, names appear in the order in which candidates file, and many candidates believe being first can make a small but sometimes crucial difference.
By state law, that first-in, first-on rule is at the discretion of County Clerk Mary Jo Spino, though Sanders has raised concerns that the clerk answers to the nine elected county legislators. Spino told the task force she’s seen few if any problems. The issue, as the task force has come to understand it, is not who’s first in line at Spino’s office on the second floor of the downtown Courthouse at 8 a.m. on the first day of filing but rather who might have an advantage in getting into the building ahead of others in the first place.
“It’s more an access and security issue that’s being addressed,” said task force member Dana M. Altieri, an attorney and Lee’s Summit municipal judge.
That issue is in the hands of the sheriff and executive, and Sanders has indicated they can work out something fair and equitable, an administrative issue not needing a decision by the voters.
“How they get in the courthouse – that’s a housekeeping issue,” said task force member Bud Hertzog, a former county legislator.
Still, task force members had a philosophical debate about the issue.
Farrington wanted the names of everyone signing up on the first day of filing to be drawn randomly for ballot order.
“It ought to cut out this Mickey Mouse hiding in the courthouse that is going on,” he said.
Becky Nace, who has served in elective office both on the Kansas City Council and the Raytown Board of Education, said candidates camping outside the courthouse the night before filing begins are showing a certain “fire in the belly” and dedication to the office. Farrington countered that it demeans the dignity of the office, but his motion for a lottery got only a couple of votes.
Cleaver said even though nothing is going on the ballot, it did get officials to discuss and decide on several issues about which there have been questions for years.
“I think it’s been a good process,” she said. “It’s an important process.”
