The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Joplin Metro

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November 7, 2009

Five seats open on Joplin council

Nominating petitions to be available Nov. 17

By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

Five of Joplin’s nine City Council seats — three general and two zone — will be filled by voters in the April 6 election.

Three incumbents have already decided to run for re-election, they said. The filing period for people to pick up nominating petitions opens Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Seats in Zone 1, currently held by Mayor Gary Shaw, and in Zone 4, held by Michael Seibert, will be open. Both said they intend to seek re-election.

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Woolston, who holds a general seat, said he will run. However, two of those who hold general seats, Phil Stinnett and Jim West, said they have not yet made a final decision.

Stinnett will have served three, four-year terms when this one expires in April 2010. He was first elected in 1998. Woolston and Shaw were elected in 2002. Woolston also served by appointment in an unexpired term from December 1997 until April 1998. Seibert was appointed in 2008 to fill an unexpired term formerly held by Jon Tupper, who forfeited his seat after having been found to have violated city rules against interfering with city employees.

West has served three stints on the council beginning with a combination of appointive and elective terms that ran from 1988 until 1996, again from 2000 to 2004, and he was last elected in 2006.

Zone candidates must live in the zone they seek to represent.

All candidates must obtain 150 signatures of registered voters on a nominating petition and sign a declaration of candidacy to run. However, zone candidates are required to have half of those signatures coming from voters in their zone.

In order to be eligible to serve, candidates must be a qualified voter and a resident of Joplin four years immediately prior to the election.

Candidates also have to file financial disclosures on their campaigns. Details about those campaign finance rules are available from the Jasper County clerk’s office.

The nominating petitions must be filed with the city clerk by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19.

A booklet on council election guidelines is available from the city clerk. It outlines the details about qualifications for the office along with duties and ethics.



Petition requests

Nominating petitions are available from the city clerk’s office on the second floor of City Hall, 602 Main St. Details: 624-0820, ext. 220.

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