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League of Minnesota Cities <br /> <br />3490 Lexington Avenue North <br />St. Paul, 1ViN 55126 <br />(612) 490-5600 <br /> <br /> October 5, 1993 <br /> <br />***** Addendum ***** <br /> <br />Joe Mansky at the elections division of the Secretary of~ State's <br />offLce said that he agrees with the interpretation in the preceding <br />memo. The issue of a statutory city's ability to have a ward based <br />election system is still raised at kis office from time to time and he <br />has always informed cities that only home rule charter cities or <br />statutory cities that had wards via special legislation or by another <br />provision of law prior to the 1973-74 switch from villages to cities <br />and which were therefore grandfathered in by M.S. 412.023, subd.4, are <br />able to hold ward based elections. Short of adopting a home rule <br />charter or receiving special legislation, it appears that the only <br />way to receive authority to create wards now would be by order of the <br />municipal board, and such an order can only be granted in-certain <br />situations involving the incorporation of a new city-(M.S. 414.02, <br />subd. 3, or the consolidation of two cities (M.S. 414.041, subd.5). <br /> <br />A list of cities that had received special legislation and were <br />operating under a ward based system in time to be grandfathered in by <br />M.S. 412.023, subd.4, can be found in shelf memos 390a.7 City Code, <br />and 140a.2 The Ward Based System of Election of City Councilmen. Both <br />of these memos are quite old, and some cities have since abandoned <br />their wards, but they are still a good guide as to who could have kept <br />their wards intact. <br /> <br />-13- <br /> <br /> <br />