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4 Mr. Cox said the idea of movin g Council elections to November has been around for several years, and the City now has the option to align Council elections with state elections. Mr. Cox said concern has been expressed about whether local elections get their fair share of media exposur e, but he said there is no evidence of that being a problem. He noted that Richmond saw a significant increase in voter participation when it moved elections to November. Mr. Cox said that if Council approves the change, then all Council candidates' term s will be shortened, and by making a recommendation prior to the election, candidates will know the length of their term. Mr. Cox recommended that Council approve the charge of the Task Force and ask that a definitive recommendation be made. Mr. Craig B rown, City Attorney, said that moving the elections to November is a relatively simple procedure, done by approval of an ordinance. He noted that the ordinance cannot be adopted between January 1 and the date of the May Council election, so the ordinance cannot be considered until after that time. Mr. Brown said Councilors' terms would be shortened by six months and the change would need to be approved by the Justice Department. Mr. Cox said that a minority representative should be on the Task Force bec ause of Justice Department requirements. Mr. Caravati asked how long it would take for Justice Department approval, and Mr. Brown said he would anticipate a relatively prompt response after an ordinance was approved. He said we could talk to localities that have already made the change and see how long it took for them. Ms. Richards said there is a flaw in the idea that candidates will know their length of term in advance since the ordinance cannot be considered until after the election. She said she is not opposed to the idea, but is not sure it is fair for candidates to not know. Ms. Richards suggested that perhaps the change could be effective for 2007. Ms. Richard said she would like to devise a method for the Task Force to study the exposure by the media when moved to November. She agreed that there was substantial coverage of local elections in the recent November elections for County officials. Ms. Richards suggested adding a representative of the U. Va. Center for Politics to the Task Force. Mr. Schilling noted that two current Councilors' terms would be affected by the change. Mr. Schilling said he would also like to look at barriers to greater public participation. He said that he raised $15,000 in his Council campaign which he feels is too much money, and he said it took him two months of full - time campaigning. He said if he was not self employed he could not have competed for the seat. He said many neighborhoods feel they have been left out of the process. He said he feels the City is too large and proposed that three items be added to the Task Force charge: 1) study a directly elected Mayor which would increase the accountability of this position; 2) in order to broaden the applicant pool, consider electing Councilors by wards whic h would allow candidates to reach fewer constituents and would drastically reduce the cost of running for office and would allow more traditionally employed people to run; and 3) study expansion to seven Councilors which would allow them to be more respons ive to constituent requests. Mr. Schilling said wards would be done under the oversight of the Justice Department. He said he feels Council values support studying these issues and he would like to expand the Task Force to look at them. Mr. Caravati ex pressed concern that the deadline of a month for the Task Force to report does not allow adequate time for input by the Republican and Democratic party to their representatives. Mr. Caravati asked who will appoint the Task Force. Mr. Cox said that each group will bring forth their own names for the Task Force. Mr. Caravati said he supports Ms. Richards' suggestions and said he would like to add time to enable the Task Force representatives to get a good sounding of their memberships. Regarding Mr. Sch illing's suggestions, Mr. Caravati said he feels they are good ideas to address another time.