In the October 19th City Council meeting, the council had the 3rd and final reading of Ordinance 2021-007, establishing three wards for Holiday Island. In next year’s election, the voters in Holiday Island will be electing two council members from each ward. Exactly how those candidates will be elected will be determined by ordinance at the November meeting. The options to consider are:
Option #1:
That the council member candidates must reside in the ward for which they are running, but the election will be “at large”, meaning all qualified electors (registered voters) in the city will vote for all six positions.
Option #2:
That the council member candidates must reside in the ward for which they are running, and that only the voters that reside in a particular ward can vote for the candidates in their ward, and not for candidates in the other two wards.
Option #3:
That the council member candidate must reside in the ward for which they are running, and that the candidates for position #1 in each ward will be elected “at large”, and the candidate for position #2 in each ward will be elected only by the voters who reside in that ward.
Prior to the election the County Clerk and the election commission will be notifying every registered voter in the city as to what ward they are in.
There are some important things to consider at this point. First of all, Arkansas Code 14-44-102 states that the registered voters in the city have 90 days from the adoption of the ward boundaries to challenge whether or not they feel that the boundaries adequately represent the needs of the voters. Since the City Council passed the ordinance on October 19th, the deadline for filing a petition would be January 17th. The ward map and boundary description are posted on the City website.
Secondly, if you are interested in running for a City Council position, you will need to know what ward you would be representing. You must live in the ward that you are representing. You will also have to decide if you are running for position #1 or position #2. There will be plenty of time to find out how to file as a candidate. And we will be putting out more information when the time comes.
Third, if you have an opinion as to how the elections should be set up, that is to say which of the three options shown above is the best option in your opinion, please contact any or all council members prior to the November meeting on the 16th. We need to hear from as many of you as possible in order to make the best decision.
In other news, we are working hard on developing a building code for Holiday Island, a Health and Sanitation ordinance, and will be finalizing the details for a building inspector/code enforcement officer. We expect to have this in place before the end of the year.