Agenda - Charter Commission - 08/15/2002 - Joint with CC

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION PAGE 3 STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION Most citizens give very little thought to the structure and organization of their local government and most elected officials probably take the structure and organization for granted. Nevertheless, the structural, and organ/zationaI aspects of government can significantly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the government. "Structure" simply means the form of local government. The structure of local government defines how executive and legislative responsibilities are divided between the government's elected and appointed officials. "Organization" means the internal arrangements of the government departments, concentrating on the relationship among departments and among departments and the elected and appointed officials. TYPES OF CITIES Minnesota has two basic types of governmental structures: statutory cities and home rule charter cities. Of the '853 cities in Minnesota, 745 are incorporated as statutory cities. They operate under chapter 412 of the Minnesota Statutes, commonly known as the city code, and under a number of other statutes that apply to ail cities. Although ali statutory cities possess the same basic powers, the code permits them to select one of three forms of organization. The three forms of organization for statutory cities are Optional Plan A, Optional Plan B, and the Standard Plan. Approximately 600 cities operate under Plan A, 16 cities operate under Plan B, and 130 cities operate under the standard plan. In Minnesota, 108 cities have adopted home rule charters. State law allows any city to adopt a charter, which in effect is a local constitution approved by the voters. Cities have a wide range of discretion in adopting charters. Charters may provide for any form of city govermnent, subject only to state laws that uniformly apply to all cities in Minnesota. STATUTORY CITIES VS. CHARTER CITIES Statutory cities and home rule charter cities differ in terms of organization and powers, not any classification based on population or geographical location. The major difference between home rule charter cities and statutory cities in Minnesota is in the type of enabling legislation under which they have been incorporated.