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City of Lino Lakes September 8, 2008 Page 3 of 8 3. Delegation of authority to approve the ballot. The letter's next point essentially repeats the prior point; it alleges that the Council's only role is to approve the ballot language (which is correct when an amendment is timely filed). However, the letter goes on to say that if the City Council disagrees with this position, "the Charter Commission will assume that this authority was delegated to it, as it pertains to any amendment being proposed by the Charter Commission." That is simply an assertion, without logic or legal support. As explained above, the Council retains the authority to approve the form of the ballot, but cannot be forced to approve a ballot form for an amendment that did not even approximately comply with the timeline for submittal to the Council in advance of the general election. 4. Withdrawal of amendment. The fourth point is yet another way of claiming that the Charter Commission has independent authority to submit, or withdraw, charter amendments, and the City Council's authority ends with fixing the ballot form. My responses above apply here as well. 5. Application of 12 -week deadline to petitioned amendment. Lastly, the letter claims that if the Council may not approve the ballot form for the Charter Commission's amendment because it was not timely filed, then the ballot for the petitioned amendment should also not be approved because the petition was insufficient and incomplete when the 12 -week deadline passed. However, this argument ignores the clear process laid out in the statute, requiring the City Clerk to give petitioners at least 10 days to cure any deficiencies. The sequence is as follows: a. Under Section 410.12, subdivision 1, amendments (whether initiated by the charter commission or upon petition of voters) must be submitted at least 12 weeks before the general election. b. Under Section 410.12, subdivision 3, the City Clerk must examine the petition within ten days after the petition is transmitted to the City Council. c. Under Section 410.12, subdivision 3, if the Clerk finds deficiencies, he or she must certify them to the petitioners, and allow them ten days to file a supplementary petition. Within five days after any such supplemental filing, the Clerk must certify findings regarding the petition. Nothing in the statute even hints that the Clerk's review, and the petitioner's time for cure, must occur before the 12 -week deadline for submittal of an amendment. The City Clerk does not begin to review the petition until it has been "submitted" under Section 410.12, subdivision 1. The statute could scarcely be clearer that the review process, allowing time for petitioners to cure deficiencies, occurs after the petitioned amendment has been submitted, and therefore may run beyond the 12 -week deadline (when a petition is submitted at or just before the deadline). 339370v1 SJB LN140-86