Minutes - Charter Commission - 04/19/2012

Home

Commissioner Deemer talked about if you are a business owner in Ramsey, you already have improvements — so you would be petitioning against an improvement that's already occurred. He mentioned vacant land would be by sheer volume. Commissioner Niska arrived — 7:40 p.m. Commissioner Sherman stated this is not just for new — it applies for reconstruction as well. Mr. Goodrich affirmed it is for any public improvement that will be assessed. Chairperson Field stated that we are having a discussion on a section that the Attorney is not presenting an amendment on; however, Mr. McGlone wants to know why the exclusion for commercial. As a procedural matter, is that considered within the preview of our meeting tonight. Mr. Goodrich responded that we would not do this tonight. You would ask for draft language to be brought back. You could table this and ask for language to be brought back all at once. Chairperson Field stated it's an interesting point. It would be interesting to look at the minutes from 2006. Mr. McGlone stated examples he got were one farmer has one PID — so one vote. The homeowner would have the upper hand. He did not see a reason to exclude the business owners. City Administrator Ulrich stated that because the petition is by owners of 50 percent of the frontage, someone who had a lot of frontage would rule it that. Petitions are based on frontage but not the number of parcels. Mr. McGlone stated that some of the frustration we get on the City Council side has to do with predominately petitions that come forward at 35 percent, we have to order a feasibility study and that's costly. There is a definite cost to the counter- petition process. If we could get a 50 percent petitions process, it is not as likely the project would be defeated. He gave the Andrie Street petition as an example of a lot of money spent and the project not going through. Commissioner Sherman asked if it is possible to charge a fee with a petition so they would have to pay for the cost of the feasibility study. City Attorney Goodrich was not sure. Chairperson Field stated that he feels there would be a question on that. An administrative fee may be understandable but a sizeable fee takes away their rights of the Charter. He mentioned eliminating the petition against a project. Commissioner Niska, stated that two years ago, we were asked the question if we would eliminate the entire petition against. We did not feel you would get very far taking that away. Charter Commission/ April 19, 2012 Page 4 of 10