Agenda - Charter Commission - 09/19/2013

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The Ramsey Charter Commission met on April 19, 2012, and approved the ordinance language drafted by the City Attorney which would change the petition amount for a public improvement to 50 percent. The City Council reviewed the language and adopted the amendment to the Charter, which became effective October 1, 2012. The Charter Commission discussed Chapter 2 of the City's Charter, specifically Section 2.3 Council Composition and Election. Discussion centered on 2.3.3 Transition Schedule. A motion was approved that the City Attorney should draft ordinance language to delete 2.3.3 and rewrite the last sentence of 2.3.1 which refers to 2.3.3, to make it easier to understand what years different wards are elected. Section 2.5 Vacancies were discussed and a motion was approved that the City Attorney draft ordinance language amending 2.5 to clarify the clause referring to non - residency in the City to have language to include non- residency in the ward. A fairly lengthy discussion took place regarding Chapter 4, Section 4.5 Vacancy of Municipal Elected Office. A motion was approved to postpone any action on that section, work on ideas for clearer language, and bring it back to a future meeting. The Charter Commission discussed a request by a Ramsey resident relating to changing the format of the City's Charter to that of the United States Constitution. The Commission felt that it was not necessary to change the format but they would welcome specific examples if the resident felt some language of the Charter should be amended. They directed that the City Attorney draft a letter to the resident telling him of the Charter's discussion. The Commission discussed the issue of the City's newsletter — the issue being that Council had suggested something less than six issues per year which would save on printing and distribution costs; however, the Charter states that there shall be six issues per year. The Commission determined that if Council wanted to reduce the number of issues to four, the City Attorney could draft an ordinance to amend the Charter to reduce the number of issues required. (The outcome of this discussion was that the City Council opted to keep the number of issues at six; however, two of the six would be a double -sided page of news inserted in and mailed out with the utility bills. The other four issues would be published and distributed as they have been.) The Charter Commission held no other meetings in 2012. Very truly yours, On behalf of the Ramsey City Charter Commission Jo Ann M. Thieling, CMC City Clerk