NEW ULM — The New Ulm Charter Commission held their third meeting Tuesday to conclude the discussion of topic points presented at the June 5 meeting.

The purpose of the commission is to update New Ulm’s city charter. The last time the city established a charter commission was in 2011.

At the first commission meeting, commissioners agreed to submit discussion points to consider. A total of 32 discussion points related to the city charter were submitted. The commission made it halfway through the discussion points at their previous meeting.

Before discussing the remaining 15 topics, the commission reviewed information concerning ranked-choice voting.

During their last meeting commissioners expressed interest in this change as many communities adopted it as a more inclusive voting method.

Ranked-choice voting, sometimes called runoff elections, is used when there are several candidates for an elected office and no candidate receives the majority of votes. Voters rank their preferred candidate. If none of the top-ranked candidates receive the majority of votes, the second-choice selection is tabulated.

This type of voting eliminates scenarios in which a candidate can win an election by only taking 30 percent of the vote. If more than two people are running for an office the chances of one candidate taking over 50 percent of the vote is low. The ranked-choice voting gives the winning candidate a more positive consensus among voters.

City Attorney Roger Hippert provided legal background on instituting a ranked-choice voting. He said the mechanics of voting through New Ulm go through the county. After speaking with Brown County Auditor Jean Prochniak it seemed unlikely any change could be made in time for the 2018 election.

The ballot would need to include language explaining how a ranked-choice vote works. There is no physical room on the ballot for 2018.

Prochniak was unable to provide the cost estimate for this new voting system since no community in Minnesota the size of New Ulm has implemented ranked choice.

Hippert felt any change in voting would need to come at the state level to effectively implement.

Commissioner Les Schultz said there was cost savings associated with ranked-choice voting in that it eliminated the need for a primary. However, the city of New Ulm will have no primary this year. The only primary New Ulm residents will see on the ballot is for the sheriff’s race, but this is on the county level.

Dennis Born spoke out against ranked-choice voting during the meeting. Born had concerns this new voting style would be too complicated and could undermine the election process.

The commission agreed public education would be needed before implementing a new form of voting.

Commissioner Linda Heine agreed New Ulm was not ready to change, but felt the idea should be kept alive for the future.

The commission agreed to establish a subcommittee to research ranked-choice voting and bring back information to the group at a future date.

One the most significant additions to the charter was the language involving the blight ordinance. Hippert said the new language gives the city teeth to enforce the ordinance. Specifically, the changes allow the city to make changes to a property in violation of a blight ordinance and bill the property owner for the expenses. This includes the right to place an assessment on the property.

Hippert said there is an ordinance behind this assessment as well, but the language needs to be in the charter to back the ordinance.

The commission will hold another meeting in the next few months to review draft changes made by Hippert based on their recommendations.