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• • • LAW OFFICES OF William G. Hawkins and Associates WILLIAM G. HAWKINS BARRY A. SULLIVAN February 14, 2006 Legal Assistants TAMMI J. UVEGES HOLLY G. PROVO Julianne Bartell Lino Lakes City Clerk Lino Lakes City Hall 600 Town Center Parkway Lino Lakes, MN 55014 Re: Charter Amendment Dear Julie: 2140 FOURTH AVENUE Nom ANOKA, MINNESOTA 55303 PHONE (763) 427-8877 FAX (763) 421 -4213 E -MAa. HawkLawl@aol.com FEB 1 5 2005 CITY OF LINO LF,Y,_ S am responding to your letter of January 31 regarding questions about the procedure for petitioning for amendments of the City Charter. In your letter you make reference to Chapter 5 of the Lino Lakes City Charter. This section of the Charter deals with initiative and referendums on ordinances and recall of public officials. It does not describe the method for petitioning for the amendment of the City Charter itself. The provisions of Minn. Stat. § 410.12 govern charter amendments. They are extensive and rather than merely summarize those in this letter, I am attaching a copy of this statute. Basically, a petition of voters equal to 5% of the total votes cast at the last previous State general election in the City must be submitted to amend the Charter. There are other requirements in the statute regarding signatures, addresses of electors and attachment of the proposed amendment to the petition. The statute requires that the proposed Charter amendment must be submitted at least 12 weeks before the general election. This issue has come up in other cities that we represent and rather than having a petition circulated and obtaining signatures on a petition that is invalid under the statute or on a subject or change that is not lawful, these communities have authorized petitioners to spend up to one hour with our office to make sure the petition meets the requirements of Minnesota law.