COMMITTEE PROCEEDS WARILY IN CHARTER REVIEW

Although members of the new Cape Girardeau Charter Review committee feared they were treading on precarious ground, they agreed Monday to proceed warily with plans to analyze the city's constitution.

The 13-member committee, appointed earlier this month by the city council, held its first meeting Monday night. But members were uncertain as to their charge.

The group agreed to at some point solicit from the community written suggestions on possible charter changes, but refused to delve too deeply into the matter until the city's Zone Election Committee completes its work.

David Kaelin said the council set no limits on what aspects of the charter the committee was to consider.

But Paul Stehr, a former councilman and mayor, said the committee should wait for the zone election committee to present its recommendations on implementation of ward council representation before consideration of further charter changes.

Stehr, who was named chairman of the charter review committee, and other members of the group said they thought bringing possible changes in the city charter before citizens prior to the report of the zone election committee would confuse voters.

The recommendations from that report likely will be presented to the voters in August in the form of a ballot measure that, if approved, would change the city charter and create six city wards.

"I suggest waiting for the issue on the zone elections to go to the council and voters first," said charter committee member Peter Bergerson. "We should deal with one issue at a time, and the primary issue right now is ward representation."

Bergerson, who also is a member of the zone election committee, said any other recommended charter changes would "muddle the process."

"I'm just afraid if we raise other issues before the election, we'll raise a hybrid out there, and people won't know what they're voting for," he added.

The charter review committee was appointed partly at the request of the city's chamber of commerce, which expressed concern over the way the zone election committee was formed and what effect its actions would have on the city charter.

The council agreed to appoint the committee to review the charter adopted in 1982 and recommend any possible changes in the document.

In 1991 the Cape Girardeau County League of Women Voters, which championed drafting of the initial charter, recommended the council adopt several charter changes or appoint a charter commission to review the entire charter.

The council took no action on the request, but members of the charter review committee indicated they likely will fulfill the role set out by the League of Women Voters.

"We started our review two or three years ago," said Kay Braasch, a member of the committee and of the League of Women Voters. "We simply went through the charter section by section and asked if there was any way this charter can be improved."

Some of the league's suggestions dealt with such things as reducing council terms of office, holding annual elections, and appointing the mayor from among the council members rather than through an at-large election.

The committee agreed to solicit suggestions in writing from the community for possible charter changes, but not until after it meets again May 24.

That would avert any intrusion into the zone election committee, which might take a recommendation to the city council as soon as May 3.

Stehr said solicitation of written suggestions is preferable to simply holding "public meetings" on the city charter.

"I don't want this committee to be the complaint department for the citizens of Cape," he said. "I think when you talk about public hearings, you have to be very careful, because what you get are the complaints."

Other members of the charter review committee include Loretta Schneider, Donald Strohmeyer, Debra Willis, Peter Hilty, Ora James Gibson Jr., Keith A. Russell, Evelyn LeGrand, Sandy Bonner, and David Barklage.