Minutes - Charter Commission - 02/13/2019

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1) Regular Charter Commission Meeting dated December 17, 2018 Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Field, Commissioners Fuhreck, Sivertson, Anderson, Bendtsen, and Leistico. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioner Barrows, Deemer and Niederhaus. COMMISSION BUSINESS 5.1 Review of Charter Chapter 4 Nominations and Elections City Attorney Langel stated that the purpose of the case is to review the existing provisions in the City's Charter relating to conducting elections as the current Charter language is not entirely consistent with State law. He explained that there are sections of Chapter 4 of the Charter that must be amended to comply with the State Statutes, and there are other sections that may be amended. The Charter could suggest an ordinance amending only the provisions that are not consistent with the State Statute or the Charter could suggest an ordinance amending or repealing the entire Chapter 4, making the conduction of elections more straightforward. City Attorney Langel stated that advisory elections are unique to charter cities, but most hardly ever choose to do them. He stated that primary elections are also not required by State law and noted that the process outlined currently in the Charter is unwieldly and there is language that must be ignored as it is not consistent with State law. He reviewed language that is included in the Charter that is not required as it is already defined by State law, which is already very specific, and therefore the duplicative language is not required to be in the Charter. He explained that the duplicative language is not providing any benefit to the City of Ramsey. He also identified language that exists in the Charter and conflicts with State law. Commissigner Bendtsen asked if there should be language stating that the City is going to follow State law, or whether that is just assumed. City Attorney Langel noted that if the language is not included in the Charter, it would default to State law. He referenced the section relating to primary elections, which are not required by State law. He asked if there is a need for primary elections in Ramsey. He explained that until you have passed the filing date, you will be unaware of the number of people that will be running and therefore notice has already been made for a possible primary and the timelines are impacted. Commissioner Anderson stated that there have been a number of communities moving towards using ranked choice voting and asked if that should be considered. City Attorney Langel stated that he did not know if Ramsey has expressed interest in ranked choice voting, as that is still a new process in Minnesota. He was unsure that Ramsey would have a high enough number of people attempting to run that would require ranked choice voting. He stated that his sense is that issue would not be addressed at this time and the focus could just be on cleaning up the section on primary elections. Charter Commission/February 13,2019 Page 2 of 11