Agenda - Council - 07/26/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I- I I I I I I I Recall is a special election to determine whether mayor or councilmembers shall continue to serve in office. Most charters have a provision that recall would be in the event of misfeasance or malfeasance by an elected official. Misfeasance means you are negligent of your official duties and malfeasance means you are deliberately performing wrongful acts. There is an obscure provision in statutory government that allows the Governor to remove an official from office. Two violations of the open meeting law constitutes removal from office. An elected official is put in office to make decisions according to his own best judgement and he is in no way obligated to vote according to the voice of the electorate and voting according to his own'judgement cannot be considered malfeasance unless there is a real conflict of interest involved. Minnesota League of Cities strongly recommends including malfeasance/misfeasance criteria if recall is written into the charter. Real Estate: Statutory-.~ities can own, buy and ~ell land for a public purpose. Certain procedures must~ followed by both~statutory and charter cities when acquiring land. Disposition of land i~ different. Statutory cities can sell land by resolution. A charter can contain provisions that greatly restrict land sale'~ .. - ..... There are no ordinances in a charter, it is a framework for law.' In the event that provisions adopted in the charter conflict with existing city ordinances, the charter would prevail and the previous ordinances would be repealed. A charter cannot change contract rights. Possibly the only ordinances that might be conflict with a charter would be administrative tYPe ordinances. Municipal Liability: Same for both statutory and char%er cities. Assessments: Minnesota State Statute Chapter 429 provides framework by which local improvements are implemented within a city. If government improves something adjacent to your property (such as streets) and can prove the p~op~rty values has increased because of that improvement, they can assess the property owner for that improvement. Improvements are brought about by a petition of 35% of frontage property owners and a 3/5 vote of council or without a petition and a 4/5 vote of council. There is no' opinion from any reliable source whether or not a charter can change this criteria. If a charter attempts to change this criteria it should be reviewed by the Attorney General. Amendments: There are basically three ways to amend a charter - 1. Public can propose an amendment 2. Charter Commission can propose an amendment 3. Council can propose an amendment If any one of the above three entities opposes the amendment, an election must be held. If none of the three entities opposes, a referendum is not required. Charter Commission recessed at 9:50 p.m. Chairman Heitman called the meeting back to order at 10:02 p.m. CC/June 23, 1983 Page 4 of 8