Minutes - Council - 04/09/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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{put up 410.10 subd 4} that conclusion is in conflict with §410.10. subd. 4 which indicates that a charter commission can submit a proposed charter over and over until it is adopted. I.e. a statutory city with a charter commission and no Home Rule Charter in place, but it does have a charter in process to amend. This person also stated in the information provided that §410.10 was adopted before July 1, 1976, therefore §410.015 doesn't apply, but the history file shows {1986 c 444}, which means it was amended in 1986, therefore readapted, and §410.015 should apply. All this means now is that §410.12. subd. 1., only applies to the charter commission who is specifically addressed in it, and that is one of the points of this presentation. {put up 410.12 subd 1 again- point out the charter commission} {start putting up 410.05 here} It is now important to recognize that the "City of Ramsey Charter Commission", is not a commission of the "CITY". It is a Quasi-Judicial commission of the District Court - for the city. The commissioners are not appointed by the city council, and cannot be removed by the city council, except by petition to the District Court. Once a charter commission is put in ~lace, the only people who can dissolve it, is the charter commission themselves, by a 75 % 7ote, and agreement of the court, and if you have an adopted charter you must have a charter commission. The 4 subdivisions of statutes §410.05 set this out specifically. And then §410.06 declares that the city shall pay all the expenses of the commission and can not enact laws putting spending limits on them. This person also furnished several pages of case law, involving the City of Mpls. a charter city, All support his conclusion, but according to the Mpls attorneys office and the League of Minnesota Cities data, there is no provision in the Minneapolis charter for initiative or referendum. This means, the cases used for these opinions are not examples of an "Initiative" action, which is what is being attempted. This might be the same person that the city attorney is talking to, now you might see a connection of thought. {put up 410.06} It is also important to understand that the Minn. Attorney Generals office does not have to understand initiative as it is not a statutory allowance in the state and they don't deal with it. They are there to advise others and enforce state statutes, and only Home Rule Charter Cities are allowed to create a procedure for initiative or referendum and recall, if they choose that option. Of the 108 Charter cities in Minnesota, only 75 allow Initiative. Of those cities only 12 allow a special election to occur on a petition of 10 % and only 2 of those allow less 10%. The other 63 that allow initiative require 15% or more. These figures are from furnished be the League of Minnesota Cities. It is interesting that in all the research I have been doing to find information to support the Ramsey City Charter, I have not found a case involving Initiative in the case law of Minn. §410 anywhere. {put up §410.20 and §410.21} At the March 12, 1996 council meeting it was suggested by the city attorney that I was reading the statute §410.12 to literally, and that this was too strict. While observing the state legislature on the live TV coverage this year, I observed them vote against an amendment to a ill because the author of the amendment would not change a comma to a period, thereby making it acceptable to the rest of the body. "Now that is a literal interpretation, and that is how they intend the laws they pass to be read." You will not find the word INITIATIVE in Chapter 410, nor will you find the word INITIATE.