Minutes - Council - 03/27/2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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invalid a City has the authority not to submit the issue to the voters. In Mr. Thomson's opinion, the provision is manifestly invalid and, therefore, the Council is not required to submit the issue to the voters. The following options were presented to the Council: 1. The City Council can choose to take no further action on the petition. 2. The City Council may, but is not required to, submit the proposed ordinance to the voters in accordance with the provisions in Chapter 5 of the City Charter. 3. The City Council may enact an ordinance in a form acceptable to a majority of the sponsoring committee within 60 days after the City Council has determined the sufficiency of the petition. If the City Council chooses this option, Mr. Thomson recommended that the procedural process established in the Municipal Planning Act be followed before the adoption of such an ordinance. 4. The City Council could seek a judicial determination as to whether the proposed initiative ordinance should be submitted to the voters. Councilmember Hendriksen inquired if Mr. Thomson is presuming the petition to be an initiative petition. Mr. Thomson replied that he concluded the petition to be an initiative petition, and reviewed both initiative and referendum. Councilmember Hendriksen inquired if both initiative and referendum petitions would be prohibited by the Municipal Land Act because it is dealing with zoning matters. Mr. Thomson replied yes, noting that the ordinance was not adopted by the City Council so there is nothing to referendum. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that there is nothing in the City Charter that states that a referendum petition only refers to adopted issues. Mr. Thomson stated that section 5.7 of the City Charter states that prior to the date that the ordinance takes affect the ordinance might be subject to a referendum. Councilmember Hendriksen replied that as of yet the density transition ordinance has not taken affect and there is nothing that prohibits a referendum petition. He read the definition of referendum from Blacks Law dictionary, which gave the following definition "the process of referring a state legislative act, a state constitutional amendment, or an important public issue to the people for final approval by popular vote. 2. A vote taken by this method. Mr. Hendriksen stated that everyone has voted on referendums where they are not trying to overturn something that has been already approved and that is why he disagreed with Mr. Thomson opinion regarding referendum. Mr. Thomson reviewed section 5.1 of the City Charter, which stated that referendum is a process of overturning an adopted ordinance. City Council/March 27, 2001 Page 8 of 22