RIVERSIDE - The city's 17-member Charter Review Committee considered possible ways of changing City Council elections during a 90-minute meeting Thursday night in a classroom at California Baptist University.

The event was billed as a community forum but only 13 members of the
community attended.

The charter is the city's constitution. It can be changed or repealed by a
majority of the city's voters.

The meeting's first major discussion focused on instant-runoff voting, a
system that eliminates the need for runoff elections. Nanette Pratini of
the California Instant Runoff Voting Coalition explained how it works.

Each voter ranks candidates in order of choice (1, 2, 3, etc.). All first
choices are counted and if no candidate wins a majority of first choices,
then the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. The votes
of voters who ranked the eliminated candidate No. 1 are then redistributed to their No. 2 choice. Last-place candidates are successively eliminated and votes redistributed to next choices until one candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote.

Pratini said instant-runoff voting would boost voter turnout, because
people with minority political opinions would feel better represented.

But Tim Connacher, an audience member, told her it sounded like the system stifles democracy by doing away with the period between the primary election and the runoff - a time when voters can reflect on the candidates.


Marcia McQuern, a committee member, asked if the 11-week runoff period after November elections couldn't be shortened.

City Clerk Colleen Nicol said any abbreviation would be minor. "You
couldn't do it, like, two weeks later," Nicol said.

Committee member Gar Brewton asked why Riverside couldn't just eliminate runoffs altogether by electing the top vote-getter in each ward.

That is how every other city in Riverside County does it, but Riverside
requires a runoff between the top two vote-getters if no candidate wins
more than 50 percent of the primary-election vote. Nicol told Brewton that Riverside voters have resisted changing the system.

The committee put off a discussion of campaign-contribution limits and
public campaign financing.

Mayor Ron Loveridge and the City Council appointed the committee last year to determine how well the charter is working.

The committee is reviewing the charter with an eye to submitting suggested amendments to a vote of citizens in November.

If two-thirds of committee members agree to a proposed charter amendment, it will automatically go on the ballot in that form unless five members of the seven-member City Council vote to change its language or keep it off the ballot.

Other issues being studied by the committee include whether the balance of power between the council and city manager needs to be adjusted and whether the charter should dictate if a council position is full-time or part-time.