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

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~ ne E~-~tials of a Good Charter ~7. c~impiicity and brevity. A home rule charter in Minnesota is a legal document which recognizes ar~ existing city as a municipal corporation and or- ganizes and empowers the governmental authorities to administer its local affairs. It is in a sense the local constitution, and as such it affects directly t~e welfare of the thousands or tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people, 'who come under its provisions.' in a democratic country, where the people are supposed to manage their own affairs, it is essential that they be able to understand and to control their government and at the same time spend the greater part of their ·time in their private vocations. Therefore, the first es- sentia.ts of a §ood municipal, charter are simplicity, brevi£y, undersl~ndability. It should be written in clear, concise Engfish.. It should be brief enough to be read in a few hours, time~ The various provisions shoul~ be si~,'np~e and .piain, not capable of two or more interpretations~ ;. . . Or~e-~.}i?~e Mayor Mathews of Boston, wh° wrote a book. o.n. municipal charters, puts the truth in this v/~y: "'fi. he more intricate and uncertain the provi- sions of the la.w, the greater the opportunities for a 'co;rupt use. of them; and the citizen who has not made z special' study of these complications is at a ~re~..t disadvantage as compared with the municipal politicizn who is ignorant perhaps.of every other ~,ubject, but a master of this."' Yet despite the need of simplicity and brevity, some municipal charters in Minnesota in the 'home. rule cities are ionge;' and more complicated than the Constitution of the United States~ .and ·some of them are longer th~.n the state constitution or the charter of the United Nations. .~8. Details should be omitted. The federal con- stitution is short and flexible because it deals with nothing but the fundamentals. Older municipal charters are usually long because they contain a §rear many provisions which are not fundamental at all. We think we Can foresee the needs of the city 'for years to come, and therefore we load the cha~er with details saying just what shall be done in each particular case. Then the conditions change and the charter provisions no longer fit. Most char- t~r ~_.rnendments are necessitated by just such details bein§ inserted in the charter when the subject mat- ter should be left to be regulated by ordinances. One city in this state adopted a home rule charter one year and adopted twenty-seven amendments to it the next year. Minneapolis adopted a long, corn-' piicated charter in November, 1920, and at the ~ Mathews, A.hmicipal Charters, p.5. election in june, 1921, the voters were asked to pass upon six amendments to the charter proposed by the same chatter commJssion~ and even these were but a few of the many that were needed: Ordinances passed by the council can be easily changed, but controversial or major'charter amend- ments generally can be adopted only by a vote of thc people after a campaign of publicity. On the other hand, few amendments haYe been necess~try :in cities with more recent charters dealing only in fundamentals. Elections take much time and cost much money, especially in the ]~rger cities. Fre- quently, proposed amendments ~re defeated. The lesson robe learned from this is, "Put only the fun-. dame'ntals into the charte~." Most Minnesota char- ters adopted since 1930 follow this principle. Almost all of these l~ave been patterned after the model charter originagly prepared by the original . author of this monograph and revised and. circulated by the League of Minnesota Cities.. 99. A bro~d, general grant of powers. Another · essential of a good charter is a comprehensive grant of powers to the city in general terms. Cities are or- ganized to promote the welfare Of the people, and where the people are in complete co,fro! of their affairs, there is no reason to fear t¢ entrust the city ~overnment with a wide range of powers. If desired, the initiative, referendum, and, as restricted by the Minnesota Supreme Coup, the recall (see section- 117) may be adopted as additional checks to p(e-. vent the abuse of powers. When the legislature en- acted charters for our cities befOre the turn of the century, it enumerated the powers of each city at great length in the charter. This was thetraditional _method of procedure and because, it was so com-- mon to do this the courts developed the view that the legislature had provided for everything which it -wished the City to do. Hence, the courts did not: permit cities to exercise any powers un·less they- were expressly granted in the charters, or very clearly implied, or absolutely necessary to the city's operations as a. municipa! corporation. ~3ut now that cities are peri;~itted to make and 'to change their own charters, it must be admitted that these' ruies need to be materially changed~ The legislature could formerly have empowered cities to exercise' ali. necessary municipai powers, but it simply never thought to do so since it was so easy to add new powers, whenever the. need arose, by a mere act of legislation. It is not so easy to change ~ home rule charter, and it would, therefore, be better policy to grant t.he city all necessary powers to begin with, and thus ~vOid the necessity of frequent amend- ment. That the city has the powei' to do this when · adopting a home rule charter is now settled; for a