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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-08-2010 Council Minutes (2)1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 r1 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Charter Commission July 8, 2010 Page 1 DATE TIME STARTED TIME ENDED MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS EXCUSED MEMBERS UNEXCUSED STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT OTHERS PRESENT: FINAL DRAFT CITY OF LINO LAKES CHARTER COMMISSION July 8, 2010 10:02 P.M. 10:45 P.M. Dahl, Lyden, Gunderson, Carlson, Drennen, Minar Penn, Storberg, Trehus, Turcotte, Williams Aldentaler, Bretoi, Sutherland, Zastrow None None Bob Bennett CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Dahl reconvened the meeting of the Lino Lakes Charter Commission 10:02 pm on July 8, 2010. OPEN MIKE No one was present for open mike. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION by Commissioner Minar, seconded by Commissioner Williams, to approve the minutes for January 14, 2010 and June 3, 2010. Motion passes unanimously. NEW BUSINESS A. Possible 2°d joint meeting with City Council Commissioner Turcotte stated he believes that forming a subcommittee with the council would be reducing voting power of the Commission. Chair Dahl stated she is not in favor of voting on a joint committee because there are three commissioners absent from the meeting and it would not be fair to vote without their input. Commissioner Drennen stated there is already a proposal from the Commission available to work off for a subcommittee. Second, if 4 Commissioners are on a Subcommittee, they still would need to bring back to the entirity of the Commission any work done in the Subcommittee. 1 Charter Commission July 8, 2010 Page 2 46 Commissioner Gunderson states the agenda item is for a possible 2nd joint meeting. She then 47 asked if the Commission would like to amend the agenda to discuss the formation of a joint 48 commission -council subcommittee and then discuss inviting the council back for a 2nd joint 49 meeting. 50 51 Chair Dahl suggested the agenda item be tabled to the October meeting due to the absence of the 52 commissioners. 53 54 MOTION by Commissioner Gunderson, seconded by Carlson, to table agenda item 3A, Possible 55 2nd Joint meeting with Council to the October meeting. Motion passes with Commissioner 56 Lyden abstaining. 57 58 MOTION by Commissioner Gunderson, seconded by Commissioner Minar, to add agenda item 59 3B to discuss forming a subcommittee with the City Council on addressing the issue of road 60 reconstruction. 61 62 Commissioner Penn is against the motion because of the absence of 3 Commissioners and of the 63 late hour of the meeting. 64 65 Commissioner Gunderson clarifies her motion is for discussion purposes only. The Commission 66 could then discuss adding the issue to the October meeting agenda or plan a special meeting 67 before October to discuss a subcommittee. 68 69 Commissioner Penn calls the question. 70 71 Motion fails with Commissioners Drennen, Turcotte, Minar, Gunderson voting yes. 72 Commissioners Storberg, Williams, Carlson, Penn, Dahl, Lyden, Trehus voting no. 73 74 MOTION by Commissioner Trehus, seconded by Penn, to discuss the request line item budget 75 and procedure to request additional funds above budget for the commission. 76 77 Commissioner Carlson states that the meeting agenda doesn't contain approval of the agenda. 78 Chair Dahl admits the omission due to the meeting with the council changed the format and will 79 note for future meetings. 80 81 Motion passes with Commissioners Storberg and Carlson voting no. 82 83 Commissioner Penn asks if a subcommittee is needed. 84 85 Commissioner Drennen states the commission would use past years budgets of the commission 86 and create line items of frame and amend, attorney fees, etc. 87 88 Commissioner Penn asked if we should do anything different than in the past. Commissioner ✓"� 89 Drennen stated the past procedure was that the Commission made the budget request for the year 90 as one number and the Council gave the money to the commission. Now the Commission would 2 Charter Commission July 8, 2010 Page 3 91 need to forecast a budget with detailed line items for attorney fees, secretarial services, office 92 supplies, printing, advertisments, etc. 93 94 Commissioner Drennen also stated that we need to come up with a procedure for asking for 95 additional funds if needed in the throughout the year. 96 97 MOTION by Commissioner Lyden, seconded by Commissioner Gunderson, to form a 98 subcommittee to create the line item requests and procedure to request additional funds above 99 budget, chaired by Commissioner Drennen, to include Chair Dahl and Commissioners 100 Gunderson and Penn. Motion passes unanimously. 101 102 B. Housekeeping items 103 104 Chair Dahl states that in years past, a plaque would be made to thank an outgoing commissioners 105 for their service. Chair Dahl would like to clarify that plaques be giving to commissioners after 106 they complete at least 4 years of service. Commissioner Carlson agrees with Chair Dahl's 107 proposal. 108 109 Commissioner Storberg states she is impressed by the commissioners of their professional work 110 on the commission. 111 112 MOTION by Chair Dahl, seconded by Commissioner Penn, to change Article 1 of the bylaws to 113 change the name of the commission to state "Lino Lakes Charter Commission." Motion passes 114 with Commissioner Minar voting no. 115 116 117 ADJOURN 118 MOTION by Commissioner Storberg, seconded by Commissioner Minar, to adjourn the meeting 119 at 10:45pm. Motion carried unanimously. 120 121 122 123 Respectfully Submitted, 124 125 Kelly Gunderson 126 Secretary I .CHAPTER 1 AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY KAREN MARTY: Section 1.04. Charter Commission. The City shall have an ongoing Charter Commission with responsibility for maintaining and updating the Charter. All proposed amendments to the Charter must be reviewed by the Charter Commission. If the Charter Commission does not approve a proposed amendment and the amendment nonetheless is placed on a ballot, then the Charter Commission may take whatever action it deems appropriate to notify the public of the impact or effect of the proposed amendment. The City shall pay all Charter Commission expenses including, but not limited to, those incurred as described in the preceding sentence, those incurred in maintaining or updating the Charter, and those incurred to comply with state law or judicial order. CHAPTER 1 AMENDMENT PROPOSED THE SUBCOMMITTEE: Section 1.04. Charter Commission. The City shall have an ongoing Charter Commission with responsibility for maintaining and updating the CharterI'he__( hart r._C.c .......................... issicont members shall receive no compensation, and must be appointed by the Chief Judsl.e of the local district court, All proposed amendments to the Charter must be reviewed by the Charter Commission. If the Charter Commission does not approve a proposed amendment and the amendment nonetheless is placed on a ballot, then the Charter Commission may take whatever action it deems appropriate to notify the public of the impact or effect of the proposed amendment. The City shall pay all Charter Commission expenses including, but not limited to, those incurred as described in the preceding sentence, those incurred in maintaining or updating the Charter, and those incurred to comply with state law or judicial order. COMMENTS BY KAREN MARTY: - A city charter is like a constitution: it should provide broad general guidance. Details which might change over time should be left out of a charter, and instead put in ordinances, laws, and bylaws. State law contains a fair amount of detail regarding charter commissions, and I do not recommend copying that into your charter. That would simply lengthen the charter, and limit your flexibility in the future. So, for example, the state law provision that a charter commission shall have "not less than seven nor more than 15 members" should be omitted. One provision in state law is that charter commission members shall be appointed by the chief judge of the local district court. I doubt if that would change (although there are no guarantees). However, if you feel strongly about including language regarding this in the charter, an additional sentence could be inserted, to state "The Charter Commission members shall be appointed by the chief judge of the local district court." As I recall, this became an issue when the city council indicated an interest in appointing the charter commission members. State law prohibits them from doing so. On the other hand, state law is silent regarding whether the city council, city staff, or the charter commission may make recommendations to the judge. At present, no one appears to do much lobbying. I recommend leaving this alone, unless and until it becomes a problem. The language proposed for Section 1.04 addresses three issues. First, it identifies the purpose of the Charter Commission (maintaining and updating the Charter). Second, it grants the Charter Commission authority to inform the public when it has concerns about a proposed amendment. Third, it clarifies that the City must pay Charter Commission expenses incurred in informing the public about a proposed amendment, maintaining and updating ("framing and amending") the Charter, and incurred to comply with state law (such as a data practices request) or judge's order. That last provision is designed to address the current problem where the Charter Commission has responsibilities under state law, yet has no funds to pay for its work — such as the Charter Commission's its duty to create and maintain various records, yet state law fails to address how the Commission may pay the costs associated with creating, storing, and retrieving those records. DRAFT CHAPTER 1 AMENDMENT FROM OCTOBER 14, 2010: Section 1.04. Charter Commission. The City shall have a Charter Commission comprised of 15 residents of the City in accordance with the requirements of the Statutes of the State of Minnesota. This Commission shall study the needs of the City and its stakeholders and propose amendments to the City Charter, review and act on proposals by the City Council, or by Citizen petition; and/or disseminate information regarding such proposals. The Charter Commission members shall receive no compensation, and shall be appointed by the District Judge. Upon expiring terms and other vacancies, the Charter Commission shall receive applications and submit them to the District Judge for appointment. The Commission may employ the legal and professional services necessary to its functions, the reasonable cost of which, when directed by the Commission, shall be paid for by the City. Tax Cap Amendment Section 7.13. Levy Limitations. The levy limitations imposed on the City by Minn. Stat. Sections 275.70 through 275.77 (2010) shall remain in effect even if the statutes are amended or repealed. The references in Minn. Stat. Sec. 275.71 to taxes levied in specific years shall be interpreted to refer to taxes levied in the year this amendment passes and each subsequent year. Comments: There are a number of ways to impose a tax cap. Mounds View and Fridley adopted detailed charter provisions, attempting to classify each fee or charge as included or excluded from the limit. Probably as a result, those provisions of their charters have been amended repeatedly. Lino Lakes could follow their model, but would have to figure out precisely which taxes and fees to include in the levy limits, and which to exclude. Those decisions would almost certainly become political, and take a great deal of time to complete. Instead of opening the floodgates that way, the language proposed above simply adopts the provisions currently in effect in state law. The City is already living with these limits. These state laws do allow the voters to approve increases, and so provide an option for the City to increase its levy. These state laws also contain provision which will allow the City to deal with emergencies, thus providing the necessary safety net. The language proposed above will keep these same limitations in place indefinitely. Draft Ballot Language: Should the City Charter be amended to permanently adopt the levy limits that are currently imposed by state law?