05-22-2008 Charter Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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'`,„ Excerpt from April 21, 2008 e-mail to Charter Commissioner: I received a call from .Anoka County a few minutes ago about my question about how the Charter Commission would go about putting an amendment question on the ballot this fall. She indicated that we would need to follow whatever normal process the city has established, which means going through the City Council, however, she was very adamant that the City Council MUST authorize putting our amendment on the ballot, so it's not a question of "if' for us or them. She also said that the council CANNOT change the ballot language that we put forward and she suggested working with the city attorney, or our own if we have one, to get the ballot language worked out. I asked her about the actual language of the question itself, i.e. approving the changes to Chapter 8 of the Charter with one question vs. spelling out each section and subdivision change with multiple questions. She indicated that if we had multiple questions that they would most likely have to have a second ballot, which was not a popular idea and gets very messy. She suggested keeping the question as simple as possible because if the question(s) are too lengthy, the voters will just vote "no" or they won't vote on the questions at all. If the ballot question is simple, the response is generally better. She was very helpful overall and said that if we have a dispute with City Hall over the ballot question that we can always call Anoka County for assistance, which was good to know. She is very aware of the politics that are involved with these sorts of issues. That's all for now. Take care, Cori