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by the City Council. Minn. Stat. § 410.12. If voters or the Council initiate, the proposed <br />amendment must be sent to the Commission for review. Id., subds. 1, 5. This sentence, <br />therefore, does not add to or clarify the Commission's authority. <br />The second sentence again refers to empowering the Commission with authority to "inform the <br />public," which is outside their statutory authority. The City Council does not have the power to <br />give the Commission authority that the legislature did not grant, either explicitly or impliedly. <br />Even if that were not true, the language concerning "equal funds and opportunities" is <br />problematic given its vagueness. How would one measure "equal funds and opportunities ?" <br />Like any other law, a charter amendment ought to be clear and not subject to a variety of <br />interpretations. Moreover, the language implies an adversarial relationship between the <br />Council and Commission that is sought to be balanced by equal funds, apparently so each side <br />can advocate their position. No public entity, however, is allowed to use public funds to <br />advocate. A violation of that rule is not remedied by giving public funds to another public <br />entity so they can violate it, too. <br />In conclusion, the proposed amendments do not appear to further effectuate the exercise of <br />governmental functions by the City, which is, or ought to be, the primary purpose of Charter <br />amendments. Rather, the amendments seem to be an attempt to broaden the authority of the <br />Commission itself. There is no statutory support for this expansion of power. If there are <br />ongoing issues about disseminating information to the public, there are other ways of <br />addressing those issues that could be discussed. <br />3 <br />