04-17-2008 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 8 APPROVED 311 Commissioner Storberg advised that the biggest issue in the last 25 years was that the charter 312 was ridged and prevented them from getting the roads fixed. She advised that if the 313 Commission's amendment was approved it would get the roads fixed. She advised that it is 314 going to be confusing either way. 315 316 Commissioner Drennen thought that the biggest difference between the two amendments was the 317 issue of referendum. He advised that the amendment proposed by the Commission allows the 318 citizens to hold a referendum within 60 days of a proposed assessment. He advised that it comes 319 down to whether the citizens would like a say or not. 320 321 Commissioner Vacha advised that the charter does not prevent the City from maintaining the 322 roads. 323 324 Commissioner Lyden advised that it comes down to an issue of budget priority and stated that 325 roads have not been the priority for quite a while. 326 327 Commissioner Vacha advised that the Commission should not have spent the time and money if 328 they were not going to present their own amendment. 329 330 Commissioner Drennen advised that they need to move forward. He stated that the time and 331 money that they spent is gone and they should not proceed with something just because of that. 332 333 Commissioner Storberg advised that they could either put out their amendment, let the Council 334 put their amendment out or leave the charter as is. 335 336 Commissioner Trehus questioned if it might be better for the Commission to conduct their own 337 survery. He thought it would be logical to have a professional company conduct the survey to 338 get unbiased results. He suggested forming a subcommittee to ask for funding and also develop 339 questions for the survey. 340 341 Commissioner Zastrow advised that the Council spent about $30,000 on their survey. 342 343 Chair Duffy advised that it was a longer survery and stated that they could keep their survey 344 under ten questions. She advised that ballot language has to be worded clearly so that a simple 345 mark of yes or no would show. She advised that the complete amendment must by published 346 once a week for two weeks in the City prior to adding the question to the ballot. She stated that 347 she had spoken with someone from Anoka County election office and was advised that the City 348 would have to approve finalized ballott language. She advised that she is also going to check 349 with the Leauge of Minnesota Citieson ballot question language. She advised that the City 350 cannot more forward with anything on this matter until they Charter Commission makes their 351 decision or exhausts their timeframes. 352 353 Commissioner Trehus advised that their attorney has offered to draft the ballot language for their 354 amendment and thought their might be a small chance that the City would approve the language 355 once submitted.