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WS — Item #2 WORK SESSION STAFF REPORT Work Session Item #2 Date: August 3, 2009 To: City Council From: Julie Bartell Re: Proposed Charter Amendment Background On July 13, 2009 the Lino Lakes Charter Commission submitted the attached charter amendment and indicated that this amendment should be considered a proposal under Minnesota Statutes, Section 410.12, Subd. 7, Amendment by ordinance. The proposed amendment was distributed to the council at their work session that evening, thus commencing the statute defined schedule for consideration of this type of amendment. Staff has prepared and attached to this report a timeline (schedule) indicating deadlines and possible dates for the following process: ➢ Publication of a public hearing notice on the amendment (must be published prior to August 13). If the council authorizes a hearing this evening, a notice would appear in the Quad Community Press on August 11. ➢ The date of the public hearing must be established no sooner than two weeks but within one month of publication of the hearing notice on August 11. This means the hearing must be held on or between the dates of August 25 through September 11. This does present an issue since there is no regular council meeting (other than a work session on September 8) scheduled during this time period. ➢ Within one month of the public hearing, the council must vote on the proposed charter amendment ordinance (regular council meetings in September are scheduled for the 14th and 28th). Statute states that the ordinance is enacted if it receives an affirmative vote of all members of the council. Section 3.05 of the City Charter establishes certain procedures on adoption of ordinances including a requirement for two readings at least 14 days apart. The city attorney has been asked for an opinion as to whether this applies to this type of charter amendment ordinance since the statute seems to imply that enact requires just one unanimous vote of the council. 1