Minutes - Charter Commission - 11/20/2003

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Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Vogt, Commissioners Deemer, Bertzyk, Ebel, LaMere, Milless and Swanson. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioner Simenson Motion by Commissioner Deemer, seconded by Commissioner Bertzyk to request Judge Quilm allow a 60 day extension prior to appointment of a Commissioner because the resignations were just received and the timing may not be right to allow publication of the vacancies in the Ramsey Res/dent. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Vogt, Commissioners Deemer, Bertzyk, Ebel, LaMcre, Milless and Swanson. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioner Sirnenson. Motion by Chairperson Vogt, seconded by commissioner Ebel that the next Charter Commission meeting be scheduled for Thursday, February 19, at 7:00 p.m. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Vogt, Commissioners Ebel, Bertzyk, Deemer, LaMcre, Millcss and Swanson. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioner Simenson. Case #7: Administrative Policies A question was raised as to whether or not the City of Ramsey would pay for certain bills from the Charter Commission. City Attorney Goodrich quoted State Statute 410.06 which states that the Commission shall receive no compensation but the Commission may employ an attorney and other personnel to assist in fi'aming such charter, and any amendment or revision thereof, and the reasonable compensation and the cost of printing such charter, or any amendment or revision thereof, xvhen so directed by the commission, shall be paid by such city. The amount of reasonable and necessary charter commission expenses that shall be so paid by the city shall not exceed in any one year thc sum of $10,000 for a first class city and $1,500 for any other city; but the council may authorize such additional charter cornmission expenses as it deems necessary. Other statutory and charter provisions requiring budgeting of, or lin'fiting, expenditures do not apply to charter commission expenses. The Council may levy a tax in excess of charter tax limitations to pay such expenses. Chairperson Vogt mentioned he could talk with Stan Data, one of the original Charter members; he would probably do some training for us and not charge us anything. Discussion ensued relating to parliamentary procedure and some members of the Commission felt they could be better informed as it relates to the rules of order. Chairperson Vogt invited the Commission to e-mail him with any topics they would like to talk about, including should an amount be decided upon to suggest for the budget for Charter. Clerk Thieling informed the Commission that the budget process was basically wrapped up for the year 2004. Discussion ensued relating to asking for a training budget of $1,000. Commissioner Swanson stated he has concerns asking for money that the Commission really does not have plans for. A brief discussion took place relating to orientation. The Commission thought that orientation was a Charter Commission/November 20, 2003 Page 4 of 7