Agenda - Charter Commission - 01/08/2002 - Memorandum

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-7- III. Committee on phraseology. Legal advice. Just as soon as a chapter of the charter has been approved by the commission, it should be submitted to a special committee on phraseology, to be gone over and revised from the point of view of uniform, clear, concise English. This committee should be composed of about three persons, including those members of the commission who are most skilled in the use of the language. If there iS a~lawyer on the commission~ he should serve with this committee to see to the proper use of legal terms and to study all the proposed provisions from the point of view of their legality. As the work of this committee proceeds it will unquestionably find a number of misuses and variation in the use of terms, inconsistencies, ambiguities, and even direct contradictions. Its function is to weld all the sections and chapters into one unified, consistent document, making it a complete and harmonious charter. Having finished its work it will report back to the entire commission, which will hear the explanation of the several changes introduced, debate them if so desired, reject such as it opposes, and finally, as the culmination of its work as a drafting body, vote upon the adoption'of ~he revised charter as a whole' The final vote should be' car~uliy recorded. . Signing, returning, and printing the charter. When the charter draft has been adopted by a vote of a majority of the commission, at least three good, clear copies should be made and authenticated. Each of the three shouldbe signed by all the members who approved of the draft. (1) One of"~these should be delivered to the clerk of the city, to be transmitted by him to the city council. (~2) A second copy should be preserved by the charter commission in its own files. (3) A third copy should be kept for the use of the printer. Obviously, the three copies should be absolutely identical in contents. The secretary of the commission should see to it that any printing is carefully done, so that the printed charter will be an exact copy of the charter adopted by the commission, even to punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. In addition, the pamphlet should be made as attractive as possible for distribution among the voters. THE CHARTER ELECTION Time of charter election. (M.S.A. 410.10.) The clerk is inferentially required to notify the council or other governing body of the city that he has received the draft of the proposed charter, and that body is then in duty bound, and ban by court order be compelled)to submit the charter to an election by the voters. As to the time of the election, however, the council has several options. (1) If no general, city election is to occur in the city within six months after the'delivery of the draft to the clerk, the council is required to call a special charter election within ninety days of the delivery of the draft charter. (2) But if a general city election is to occur within the six months' period, the council may either (a) postpone the election on the - charter until such general election, or (b) call a special election on the charter to be held on some daM. prior to the general elect~on.