BY LINDA BENTLEY | JULY 7, 2010

Carefree PAC qualifies initiative for November ballot

CAREFREE – On June 24, Town Clerk Betsy Wise sent a letter to Wayne Fischer, chairman of the Committee for Direct Election of Mayor, certifying his Initiative Application IN2010-01 has more than the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for the November ballot.

Although voters overwhelmingly (73 percent) passed an initiative to directly elect their mayor in 2009, which was placed on the ballot by Councilman Bob Coady, the language, as copied from state statute, did not require the mayor to receive a majority of all votes cast in order to win the election.

Fischer’s initiative aims to change the language, to make it consistent with the election of council members, to read as follows:

“The mayor shall be directly elected by the vote of qualified electors. Any candidate who shall receive at the primary election a majority of all votes cast for mayor shall be declared elected to the office, and no further election shall be held. In the event that no candidate shall receive a majority of votes cast for mayor in the primary election, Section 2-3-3 of the town code shall apply,” which provides for a general or runoff election.

The first direct election of mayor will be held in 2011.