Agenda - Charter Commission - 11/29/2001

Home

~[ am making this speech because I feel there is some misperception by certain citizens aborn the cities charter. I am making the speech at citizens inpm because I don't feet malting it as a commissioner at the table is the proper use of that position. The cities chin-ret is a set of rules des/g-ned to govern how the city makes city codes and admimsters the affairs of the city... In Ramsey the clmrter should be compared to the' State document lmown as the constitution of Minnesota. As such it shotdd be very difficult to alter and change, not a function that can easily be achieved by a dissident few in the city, just as the state constitution is very diffimdt to change and requires legislative approval, and then approval by the voters of the state. (Remember the gamb~g issue) The charter comm/ssion is the legislature of the cities charter, and must approve changes that are then submitted to the 'voters for their approval. The charter commission can not make changes to the charter without a ballot question, unless the council votes unanimously to adopt the change subm/tted by the charter comarfission. (tbs has been done) There are .no provisions in the cities charter .allowmg citizens to submit changes to the charter i'tselz: There are provisions for allo~ving citizens to make changes to the cities codes that are permitt, ed under state statute, however not all changes to codes are allowed under state statute, as they are reserved to the ach:n/n/st-rating body of the city,, in our case the mayor and cotmcil. Tonight we are dealing w/th a proposed amendment to the charter, which Mil require cenain volmne of voter turnout for a charter question, or Initiative, ,~d referendum under ~e charter. To not include the states statute 410 that allows Charter amendments (by statute the only way to amend the charter) in the requirement, would make my proposed amendment to the charter an exercise in futility, as it is the Charter that has been modified 3 times by this process, and not the city codes .... future meetings we will all get a chance to read and mnderstand fi]is statute, as we all now have been furmshed a copy... I don't expect all nme of us to agree on every inteCretafion we come up with in reading this statute, bm it is our bibl% if you Mll~ and contains all of l/rotted author/W, That author/ty is l/rotted to th/s cities charter exclusively. It is common lmowledge that I disagree with Mr. Goodr/ch. ~'i~e city attorney on some aspects and interpretations of chapter 410, but including the revised text ftmn/shed tonight for 5.9 of the charter would remove my concerns on interpretation of 410 ff the voters approve the change fin Nov. To not include tkis version of 5.9, will allow a ~-oup of citizens as small as 408 to force charter amendments to a special election at any time of their choosing before the end of the first week of June, 2002, as chapter 410 is now currently implemented by the city. -13-