St. Joseph to vote on staggered city council terms in April

By Chris Fortune

St. Joseph could see changes to its election process come April 2 if voters pass an ordinance approved by the city council Monday night.

Council members voted in favor of putting seven charter amendments on the April ballot. Voters can approve or deny each amendment.

One significant proposal would require an election every two years for the city council. Four district council members would be elected to four-year terms in one election, with four at-large council members and the mayor being elected to four-year terms two years later.

City Manager Bryan Carter said the staggered term proposal would be the most impactful on the operations of the city government. Currently, all city council members are elected every four years at the same time.

“In 2026, all positions would be elected, but district council members would only be elected for two-year terms,” he said. “(District members) would then have another election in 2028, and that would be a four-year term election.”

City council members in municipalities like North Kansas City, Blue Springs, Jefferson City and Columbia are elected to staggered terms.

“2026 will be a little bit unique,” he said. “You have to have an implementation period to transition to the staggered approach.”

Another amendment would change how candidates file petitions to run for office. Currently, the charter allows for a candidate to obtain petitions to collect signatures to run for mayor, district city council and at-large city council, but only one petition can be filed for one office.

“Under the potential changes, the number of petitions that can be pulled will be limited to one office, so you would have to pull the petition for the office that you ultimately turn the petitions in for,” Carter said. “An important element of that, however, is that you would still be able to return the petition and get a petition for a different office if you changed your mind.”

A third proposed charter amendment would move new department creations to the code of ordinances, where they are already modified.

“The reality is nothing’s going to change in the day-to-day operations, but it’s just going to move the creation of a department to the code of ordinances rather than the (city) charter,” he said.

Voters will decide seven different propositions on the April 2 ballot. The full list of proposed revisions can be found at https://bit.ly/3UbCrqB.

“As far as the questions going to the voters, the city council’s portion of that process is done,” he said. “The city clerk will now get that information to the county clerk to put it on the ballot.”