Laserfiche WebLink
Kurt Ulrich <br /> March 21, 2022 <br /> Page Two <br /> affirmative vote of all members of the City Council. This was the method I recommended as, <br /> with the Charter Commission's cooperation of agreed-to language (without the actual initial <br /> passage of the ordinance by the Council), this is the most immediate manner of amending the <br /> Charter. The one real impediment, of course, would be the absence of a unanimous Council. <br /> The manner of proposing amendments that avoids the direct input of a city council is provided <br /> in Subdivision 1 of the statute. It should be said at the outset that this is a process that is not <br /> "simple" and is ripe for potential error. Great attention must be paid, in particular, to the <br /> witnessing of the signatures necessary, which must number, in total, equal to or more than five <br /> percent (5%) of the total votes cast in the previous state general election. No small hurdle. <br /> Since the change being proposed is not particularly large, I would suggest that a summary <br /> would not be needed. Rather the petition would need to read as follows: <br /> "The Undersigned, being registered voters in the City of Ramsey, <br /> Minnesota, qualified to Petition to change the Charter of the aforesaid <br /> City, do hereby propose the following amendment the Charter of the <br /> City of Ramsey, by adding a paragraph to Section 2.4 thereof, as <br /> follows: <br /> `Sec. 2.4— Incompatible offices. <br /> No member of the Council may serve as a member of the City of <br /> Ramsey Charter Commission while serving on the Council. No <br /> member of the Council may serve as a voting member of any other <br /> Commission or Board of the City of Ramsey while he/she remains in <br /> office unless such membership is otherwise required by law." <br /> Each sheet of the petition would need to contain the signature of the petitioner (whose <br /> signatures can be contained in severality on any given page), as well as their address. Any <br /> signature would have to be witnessed by the canvasser,who, in turn, must verify the signatures <br /> under oath using the format specifically laid out in the statute. <br />