Published: November 03, 2009 12:25 am      

Jeffersonville council takes first step toward second-class city status

Move would add two council members; remove clerk-treasurer post

With a 4-3 vote, the Jeffersonville City Council on Monday night preliminarily approved an ordinance that reclassifies the city from third class to second class.

If the ordinance gets final approval, the seven-member council would grow to nine members and financial duties would be taken out of the clerk-treasurer’s hands, among other changes.

Council members Ed Zastawny, Barbara Wilson, Nathan Samuel and Connie Sellers voted for the reclassification. Councilmen Mike Smith, Ron Grooms and Keith Fetz voted against it.

The classification is based on population count. In order for Jeffersonville to qualify as a second-class city, it would have to have a population of more than 35,000. Right now, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates Jeffersonville’s population at 29,627.

However, the Oak Park annexation — held up in court during the last year — is expected to bring in thousands more now living east and north of the city limits in 2010.

Sellers said she favored the move as a matter of representation. The city is annexing, bringing more into the city and so more representation — via a larger council — is needed.

“I’m not sure a bigger government with a bigger budget equals better representation,” countered Grooms.

Fetz noted that voters would lose the power to elect a clerk-treasurer to handle finances — noting that job would go to a controller, appointed by the mayor in a second-class city.

No elected official would lose office, but the changes would take effect during the next municipal election cycle, in 2011.

Look for an in depth story on this issue later this week in The Evening News.