07-08-2010 Council Minutes (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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I .CHAPTER 1 AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY KAREN MARTY: Section 1.04. Charter Commission. The City shall have an ongoing Charter Commission with responsibility for maintaining and updating the Charter. All proposed amendments to the Charter must be reviewed by the Charter Commission. If the Charter Commission does not approve a proposed amendment and the amendment nonetheless is placed on a ballot, then the Charter Commission may take whatever action it deems appropriate to notify the public of the impact or effect of the proposed amendment. The City shall pay all Charter Commission expenses including, but not limited to, those incurred as described in the preceding sentence, those incurred in maintaining or updating the Charter, and those incurred to comply with state law or judicial order. CHAPTER 1 AMENDMENT PROPOSED THE SUBCOMMITTEE: Section 1.04. Charter Commission. The City shall have an ongoing Charter Commission with responsibility for maintaining and updating the CharterI'he__( hart r._C.c .......................... issicont members shall receive no compensation, and must be appointed by the Chief Judsl.e of the local district court, All proposed amendments to the Charter must be reviewed by the Charter Commission. If the Charter Commission does not approve a proposed amendment and the amendment nonetheless is placed on a ballot, then the Charter Commission may take whatever action it deems appropriate to notify the public of the impact or effect of the proposed amendment. The City shall pay all Charter Commission expenses including, but not limited to, those incurred as described in the preceding sentence, those incurred in maintaining or updating the Charter, and those incurred to comply with state law or judicial order. COMMENTS BY KAREN MARTY: - A city charter is like a constitution: it should provide broad general guidance. Details which might change over time should be left out of a charter, and instead put in ordinances, laws, and bylaws. State law contains a fair amount of detail regarding charter commissions, and I do not recommend copying that into your charter. That would simply lengthen the charter, and limit your flexibility in the future. So, for example, the state law provision that a charter commission shall have "not less than seven nor more than 15 members" should be omitted. One provision in state law is that charter commission members shall be appointed by the chief judge of the local district court. I doubt if that would change (although there are no guarantees). However, if you feel strongly about including language regarding this in the charter, an additional sentence could be inserted, to state "The Charter Commission members shall be appointed by the chief judge of the local district court." As I recall, this became an issue when the city council indicated an interest in appointing the charter commission members. State law prohibits them from doing so. On the other hand, state