City Council seats officially open

As of this week, citizens seeking to become members of Iola’s first ever city council may file their intentions to do so.
City Clerk Roxanne Hutton told the Register Tuesday paperwork is in place for the city to accept nominees for the eight-member council, which will be seated in April.
The council will consist of two members from each of the city’s four reshaped voting wards (see map, page B6), and a mayor. All will serve two-year terms, as will a mayor and city treasurer, who will be elected at large.
Candidates have until noon Jan. 25 to file by either submitting a petition with at least 105 signatures of registered voters in Iola or by paying a $10 filing fee.
For newcomers to elective politics, Hutton has information available provided by the League of Kansas Municipalities on the functions, duties and responsibilities of city council members and other elected officials.
In addition, the existing city commissioners have agreed to meet in the evenings to give more residents a glimpse of local government in action.
The first evening meeting was Tuesday.
A few notes:
— None of the new council members will be paid for their service, at least for the first two years.
That’s because city council members cannot vote themselves a pay raise. They can, however, establish a charter ordinance setting salaries for elected officials, but that ordinance would not take place until April 2013.
— Likewise, the new council members cannot extend any of the new councilmen’s terms to four years in order to stagger elections.
“They can set staggered elections with a charter ordinance for the next council, but they cannot alter their original terms,” Hutton said. “That’s because voters put these people in office to fill a specific term with specific conditions.”
 — The council also could draft a charter ordinance making the city treasurer’s post an appointed position, but that also would not take effect until 2013.
Iolans voted three times over 18 months on the size and scope of city governance, first in April 2009 to disband the existing three-member commission; a second time a year later in a nonbinding vote to endorse a five-member city commission; and finally in November to reject the five-member commission in favor of an eight-member city council.
Iola’s First Ward consists of all residents living north of Breckenridge and west of Cottonwood streets and includes such places as Russell Stover Candies and Highland Cemetery.
The Second Ward is east of Cottonwood Street, with its southern boundary running along Carpenter, Second, Douglas, Kentucky and East streets. It includes Allen County Community College.
The Third Ward is south of Breckenridge and west of Cottonwood streets and includes Riverside Park.
The Fourth Ward is bounded to the north by the Second Ward and to the west at Cottonwood and contains McKinley Elementary School and Iola Middle School.