South Idaho Press: Local

South Idaho Press: Local: "Council rejects by-seat electionsCouncil rejects by-seat elections" By Sven Berg/South Idaho Press Burley’s city council voted down a resolution Tuesday that proposed to change Council elections from an at-large to a by-seat format. Mayor Jon Anderson said Tuesday’s vote came as no surprise, despite the fact the Council’s Feb. 5 vote to authorize drafting the resolution resulted in a tie with three votes on either side. Anderson broke the tie at that meeting in favor of changing to by-seat elections.The only councilman to change his Tuesday vote from the Feb. 5 vote was Councilman Dennis Curtis. Asked after the meeting why he had changed his mind, he said the city should focus on changing elections to a by-district format.He said residents would be better served “if you break the city down into six areas so that you’ve got every district properly represented. ”This was not the first time Curtis expressed support for by-district elections. When Anderson brought up the subject of changing election formats at the Council’s first public meeting of the year, Curtis was one of the few councilmen to support the by-district variety. Other councilmen, including Vaughn Egan, suggested by-district elections would complicate the process unnecessarily.