June 17, 2010
Thursday

Ketchikan, Alaska - Katy Suiter, City Clerk, announced today that the blank petition filed in the Ketchikan City Clerk's Office on May 28, 2010, regarding a proposed amendment to the Charter of the City of Ketchikan relating to the location of a new public library has been determined, with the assistance of the City Attorney, to be legal and to have sufficient signatures.

Suiter stated in a memo to the Ketchikan Mayor and City Council that the Charter requires that the question be place on the ballot for the next regular election or special city election to be held not less than two months after final determination of the legality and sufficiency of the petition.

The language contained in the petition filed by "A Better Choice" reads: "If the City constructs a new public library after the effective date hereof, the library shall be located on City-owned property in the Downtown of the city, which is defined as the area boarded by Grant Street to the North, Front Street to the West, Mill Street and Totem Way to the South, and Creek Street to the East, to Part Avenue, thence to Grant Street".

The signed petitions were filed with the City Clerk's office on June 09, 2010, containing a total of 426 signatures. After careful review, the City Clerk's Office determined 355 of the signatures were established to be those of qualified City voters.

According to the Charter, the number of signatures that were required to be gathered from qualified voters of the City must "equal at least twenty-five percent of the total votes cast at the immediately preceding regular city election." A total of 1406 ballots were cast at the regular municipal election on October 06, 2009, which means that 352 qualified City voters were required to find the petition by "A Better Choice" sufficient.

The State of Alaska will be holding a primary election on August 24, 2010, and City Clerk Katy Suiter informed the Ketchikan City Mayor and Council that it is her intention to bring a resolution before the Council at the first meeting of July calling for a special City election on the same date, unless otherwise directed by the Council.

Suiter stated a special election may prove to be somewhat difficult, as the City will need to find separate election boards. She noted that election workers are very difficult to find during the summer months, but it is her belief that it will serve the public better to hold the special election on the same date as the primary election, August 24th.

Source of News:

Office of the City Clerk
City of Ketchikan, Alaska
http://www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/

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