Agenda - Charter Commission - 07/10/1997

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MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: RE:' DATE: Ramsey City Council William K. Goodrich, city Attorney Procedure for Amending the City Charter August 6, 1996 The Charter Commission has asked my opinion on the procedure for amending the City Charter to provide for a four year Mayor's term. M.S. §410.12 contains four ways by which amendments to Ramsey's Charter may be proposed. These are: The Charter Commission mav propose an amendment at any time (Subd. 1). Pursuant to a legally sufficient citizen petition, the Charter Commission must propose a charter amendment (Subd. 1). The City Council m_DEZ propose Charter amendments (Subd. 5). Upon recommendation of the Charter Commission, the city Council may enact a Charter amendment by ordinance (Subd. 7). It is my understanding that the Charter Commission desires to propose the amendment and therefore the procedure for such a proposal is outlined below. The amendment proposal should be delivered to the City Administrator (M.S. §410.07). " The Council shall cause the proposed amendment to be submitted at the next general election after delivery to the City Administrator occurring within six months after delivery of the proposed amendment, or if no such election is to occur within six months, a special election shall be held within 90 days after delivery of the proposed amendment (M.S. §410.10, Subd. 1). The Council must meet to give notice of the election and order publication "once a week for two successive weeks in the official newspaper" (M.S. §410.10, Subd. 2). At the Council meeting, the Council shall fix the form of the ballot "The statement of the question on the ballot shall be sufficient to identify the amendment clearly and to distinguish the question from every other question on the ballot at the same time" (M.S. 410.12, Subd. 4).