Instead of being able to choose the best candidates for two seats from a field of four, instead of benefiting from the vigorous clash of ideas that contested candidacies can bring, voters were deprived of a contest. Ketchum s system wasn t broke, but the council decided to fix it anyway. City council seats are nonpartisan. Thus, candidates are not required to declare their candidacy for party primaries that occur in the spring before the November election. Candidates can put off filing for a city council seat until the deadline in September.
Filing is blind.
That didn t matter with a winners-take all system. It does now. It s how Sun Valley ended up with three candidates for one seat, and only one for the second. The Ketchum City Council liked this bad idea so much that it dispensed with three readings of the new plan and dispensed with public hearings on the matter. The council decided to proceed because it said no one was interested Council members Dave Hutchinson, Chris Potters and Randy Hall all seized on the rationale that the new system will make elections issue driven.