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<br />cities are not organized, but are instead incorporated pursuant to Minn. Stat. S 414.02 (2006). <br /> <br />While cities can exercise many of the powers given to towns, those powers are expressly <br /> <br />granted, which demonstrates that the legislature does not regard the simple use of the word town <br /> <br />to include cities. Minn. Stat. S 415.01 (2006). <br /> <br />The plain meaning of the restricted use of the word "town" in section 124D.lOis that <br /> <br />town residents, not city residents, must be given an admissions preference over individuals that <br /> <br />are not residents of a town. The Court need look no further than the statute itself to conclude that <br /> <br />the Town Preference does not apply to PACT or any other charter schools in cities. <br /> <br />2. If Legislature Intended a Broader Meaning, It Would Have Said So <br /> <br />Because the plain meaning of "town," and thus the limited scope of the resident <br /> <br />exception is clear, the Court's analysis should stop there. Look notes that Minn. Stat. S.462.352 <br /> <br />defines "municipality" as including both a city and a town, but this definition relates to housing, <br /> <br />redevelopment, planning and zoning and has nothing to do with charter schools. And, the <br /> <br />definition cited by Look actually demonstrates that where the legislature intends to confer the <br /> <br />same rights or responsibilities on cities and towns, it does this explicitly. This notion that one <br /> <br />cannot imply a legislative intent to include "city" within the word ''town'' is particularly <br /> <br />applicable to the construction of a statutory exception, because exceptions are to be construed <br /> <br />narrowly under Minnesota law. See Minn. Stat. S 645.19 (2006) ("Exceptions expressed in a law <br /> <br />shall be construed to exclude all others."). <br /> <br />Although it certainly could have, the legislature did not use the term "municipality" in the <br /> <br />charter school statute. Nor, did it use another more inclusive term such as "local government <br /> <br />unit" (defined in Minn. Stat. S 473.121, subd. 6 as "any county, city, town, school district, <br /> <br />special district or other political subdivisions or public corporation other than . . . . "). And the <br /> <br />. . <br />legislature notably did not repeat the broad "specific geographic area" language relating to racial <br /> <br />-138- <br /> <br />11 <br />