Okay, discussions about moving Christiansburg Town elections from May in even-years to November in odd-years has been an on-again, off-again dialog this entire year.
First brought up in January, the Mayor proclaimed a consensus to "wait and see" how this goes for Blacksburg but tasked the town's attorney to prepare a report addressing relevant points and necessary steps. If this information was in fact provided to council members, maybe no one noticed (it wasn't shared at open council meetings).
There was in fact a lot of discussion, even more questions and some outright immediate opposition. There were several opportunities for any member of council to be proactive and make a motion to change the Town Charter, by ordinance, but none acted.
With his first meeting in September as a newly appointed council member, Henry Showalter again brought the topic to the table and invited the Montgomery County Voter Registrar, Randy Wertz, to make a brief presentation.
Council fidgeted and fudged, but declined to take action -- our small town elections are special, they said. If you weren't sorry or stupid, you voted at the Armory in May, was inferred. Town elections might get lost in the political mix, said others. Low voter turn out could be a sign of citizen satisfaction, they hoped. Instead, they threw the matter back at citizens who could do the job themselves, maybe. This would require filing a petition with the courts and obtaining signatures from 10% of all registered voters in Christiansburg, to allow the issue to be decided by referendum. And a group worked to do this, including Councilman Showalter who personally filed the petition.
Suddenly, at last night's town council meeting, the matter reappeared on the agenda. No, the town's attorney stated, council could not file a petition itself to get this on a May ballot. It could make this change by ordinance, but a referendum could not be initiated by the council. This made it appear as if the earlier report tasked to the town's attorney wasn't done, or wasn't read. And some of this should have already been clear to council members or the Mayor, who stated they had seen information on moving town elections from other sources earlier in the year.
Apparently still unclear on the other related steps, the Mayor stated the "intent" of last night's revisit of this topic was to "expedite the process."
If it was council's intent to address the issue, they have had 18 meetings where action could have been taken to modify by ordinance. Instead, this looked like a negative reaction to citizens taking the matter into their own hands -- and an attempt to keep the referendum off a November ballot (where a significantly higher voter turnout is experienced) and move it onto a May ballot (where only approximately 10% of registered voters show up).
Once the necessary signatures are obtained (and this has to be done within the next 9 months now), the state's Department of Justice must approve it -- generally a cursory step as regards election laws. Then the General Assembly must approve it, as it is still a change in the Town Charter, and again is generally a cursory step. But council would still need to act and determine how four year terms would be affected -- shortening some and/or lengthening others -- as well as the date newly elected members would take office. As an example, November election victors are typically in office by January (rather than the current four month waiting period seen in Christiansburg).
If the Mayor's and council's intent is now to support or help speed this process up, they can help out in several ways. The can help get signatures, they can contact the Department of Justice and our state legislators and let them know this is in the works, they can begin discussing how terms of office will change -- just some council members, or all council members, and when.
If the petition and approval from the Justice Department are done, the referendum could be on the November 2009 ballot, with General Assembly approval in the 2010 session. Assuming everything flowed along and the change did take effect, the first November town elections would occur in 2011.
If the Mayor and council really wanted to expedite the process, they could make a motion and vote to have all this done by ordinance, and then the first November town elections would occur as early as 2009 -- just as they could have taken these steps anytime earlier this year. Just as in Blacksburg, when signatures for a referendum were being collected, that town council ultimately voted to change their elections to odd-numbered Novembers due to consensus between the public and elected officials.