Questions help clean house in Palmer

PALMER — Newcomers to Palmer can take a hand in local government following Tuesday’s vote amending the city’s charter to loosen the residency requirement for city office candidacy.

By a large margin, 454 to 168, voters ditched a requirement that candidates for city offices have at least three years of residency in the city, reducing it to one year.

Mayor John Combs said it is a move that needed to be made and has potential to encourage more participation in the local political process.

“One year of residency is enough time to acclimate to the community,” Combs said.

If a person moves to the city and feels a desire to serve in a city position, he or she should have a good understanding of what’s important to the city after a year and should be allowed to run for office, Combs said. This includes candidacy for city council, which sometimes lacks variety.

“The bigger the pool we can draw from to run the community is a positive thing,” Combs said.

Although the 2007 Palmer City Council election featured five candidate running for two seats, Combs said that kind of participation hasn’t been the norm. Many elections have had candidates running unopposed, including Combs in the Oct. 2 election.

City voters also updated Palmer’s policies regarding public meetings. With 79.3 percent support — 406 to 106 — the city’s public meetings guidelines were brought in line with the state Open Meetings Act in Tuesday’s vote.

“I hope it’s because people understand that it matches the state’s language,” Palmer City Clerk Janette Bower said of the lopsided vote.

“Generally, [Props. 1 and 2] were housekeeping propositions,” Bower said, adding they were also necessary, especially Prop. 2. “It leaves the language broad in our charter and narrows it in our code.”

The old charter language said public meetings would be announced six hours in advance, but that usually wasn’t enough time for residents to plan to attend, she said. The new language states that reasonable notice will be given.

Contact Chris Gillow at 352-2284 or chris.gillow@frontiersman.com.