09/08/2009 Council Packet (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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LinoCharter.org Know Your Rights The lawn signs contained the following. "Prepared and paid for by the Lino Lakes Charter Commission, 600 Town Center Parkway, Lino Lakes, Minnesota 55014 ". www.linocharter.org is a Web Site/URL that carries a banner that reads "Lino Lakes Charter Commission ".1 In October of 2008, the Home Page of the Web Site contained the following language: On November 4, citizens of Lino Lakes will be presented a ballot question to determine how road widening, reconstruction, city utility expansion and other public improvement projects will be managed. Under the provisions of Chapter 8 of the current city charter, citizens enjoy certain rights for assessable projects that will be lost should the ballot issue pass. The material on the Web site contains the following notation: Copyright 2008. Lino Lakes Charter Commission. All rights reserved. While the Web site contains many "pages," the majority of the content centered around the theme that in Lino Lakes, the only measure currently in place that allows voters to restrict tax increases imposed by the City Council is in Chapter 8 of the Lino Lakes City Charter. An example of such content is the following. "If the charter amendment passes, all citizen input will be surrendered to the City Council... the checks and balances offered by the current city charter would be null and void." AUTHORITY OF THE CHARTER COMMISSION The existence of a charter commission is conferred by the state legislature. The commission's only powers are those expressly conferred by statute or implied as necessary to aid in those expressly conferred powers. The charter commission has no authority to undertake any action without the existence of enabling legislation to support such activity. In other words, the charter commission has no inherent power. The charter commission's expressed powers are only found in Chapter 410 of the Minnesota Statutes. The powers of the commission enumerated in Chapter 410 are as follows: r The cost of operating and maintaining the Web Site were not directed to the City of Lino Lakes for payment, and are not further addressed in this opinion. 2