04-10-25 - Charter Commission Agenda Packet

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1. The Charter Commission votes to recommend that the City Council enact an ordinance to amend Section 4.01 of the City's Charter to move municipal elections from odd -numbered years to even -numbered years. 2. Within one month of receiving the Charter Commission's recommendation, the City must set a public hearing on the proposal and publish notice of the hearing. The notice must contain the text of the proposed amendment. 3. The City Council must hold the public hearing on the proposed amendment at least two weeks but not more than one month after the notice is published. 4. Within one month of the public hearing, the City Council must vote on the proposed Charter amendment ordinance. To be enacted, the ordinance would need to receive the affirmative vote of all City Council members and be approved by the Mayor. 5. Once approved by the City Council and the Mayor, the ordinance would need to be published consistent with other ordinances. 6. Within 60 days of passage and publication of the ordinance, a petition signed by at least 5% of the registered voters in the City or 2,000, whichever is less, may be filed with the City Clerk requesting a referendum on the ordinance. If such a petition is filed, the Council may reconsider its action or submit the ordinance to a vote at a regular or special election held at least 60 days after the petition is submitted. Under such circumstances, the ordinance would not take effect until approved by the voters at an election. 7. If no petition is filed, the ordinance becomes effective ninety (90) days after passage and publication, unless a later date is set by the ordinance. Because this option does not inherently involve putting the issue to the voters at an election, it may be more cost efficient and expedient. In fact, based on our calculations, it may be possible to amend the Charter to move to even -year municipal elections with sufficient time to avoid needing to hold an election on November 4, 2025, if that is the desired result. This is the only option to amend the Charter where that is practicable, given the roughly four- to six-month process from Charter Commission recommendation to effective date of amendment (assuming unanimous Council/Mayor approval and no petition to put the matter to a referendum). The timing, however, will be close. If the City were to pursue this option and the ordinance were to take effect after the August 12, 2025 candidate filing deadline, the City would need to confirm with the appropriate authorities that they would approve canceling the election. Minnesota law is silent on how this would be handled. 2