By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Petitions are now being circulated for potential St. Joseph City Council candidates.
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter says petitions can be turned into the City Clerk’s office from October 19th through November 23rd.
“So, it’s overall going to be around a 60-day process where they can begin pulling petitions and then get those petitions submitted to the City Clerk,” Clark says.
Candidates for mayor and one of the four at-large seats on the St. Joseph City Council must gather at least 250 signatures from qualified voters. Candidates for the four district seats must gather at least 75 signatures.
At present, 16 candidates have picked up petitions from the City Clerk’s office, four for mayor. Mayor Bill McMurray is not running for re-election. Seven residents have taken out petitions for at-large seats with four circulating petitions for three of the four district seats.
Once all petitions have been turned into the City Clerk’s office, the Buchanan County Clerk’s office will work with the city to confirm candidate eligibility and verify petition signatures.
“Start getting a ballot set up for a primary election that will happen in February and then from that primary election we’ll have the slate of candidates narrowed down to a slate that will be selected next April,” Carter says.
The St. Joseph City Council just recently approved a redistricting plan for the four council districts. The city council after the next election will have four at-large and four district council members, plus the mayor.