Agenda - Charter Commission - 01/19/1995

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3~ il '95 03:09 R~MD~_L DEHNG00DRICH MEMO RA~D UH TO: FROM: PJE: DATE: Ramsey Charter Co~mission William K. Goodrich, City Attorney Section 12.5 of City Charter - Sales of Real Property January 9, 1995 At your November 17, 1994 meeting you asked that I review Section !2.5 of the City Charter with the goal of amending this provision to provide for less complicated sales of City o~ned real property and a possible restriction on the Council's ability to acquire real property. Section 12.5 is as follows: Section 12.5 sales of Re&l Property. No real property of the city, with the exception of cemetery plots, shall be disposed of ~xcept by ordinance. The proceeds of any sale of suc2n property shall be used as far as possible to retire any outstanding indebtedness incurred by the city in the purchase, construction, or improvement of this or other property used for the same public purpose. If there is no such outstanding indebtedness, the council may by resolution designate some other public use for the proceeds. My research reveals that the current Section 12.5 is relatively common as it is a provision in the League of cities model charter. For your information, the City of Anoka. has a similar provision. I an not aware of statutory language or charter provisions which restrict a council's ability to acqu.ir¢ real property, except for K.s. §462.356, Subd. (2) which does restrict statutory cities in the acquisition and disposal of real property after the adoption of a comprehensive plan. This statute provides that" . no publicly owned interest in real property within the municipality shall be acquired or disposed of nor shall any capital improvement be authorized . . until after the planning agency has reviewed the proposed acquisition, or capital improvement and reported in writing (its findings)." This requirement can be dispensed with by a two-thirds vote of the council. I do want to call your attention also to Section 6.4 of the Charter which provides that "Ail purchases shall be made and all contracts let by the Council". Presumably this provision applies to purchases of real property. Notably, this section places no restrictions on the Council's authority to make purchases. The public's interest in protecting park. lands being disposed of by the City Council is not affected by charter language. This is t~ue because park land which is dedicated to the City by the platting procedure is deemed to be held by the City in trust for p~blic park purposes. The City in effect holds the land in trust for the public and has no power to convey it or use it other than