Agenda Packets - 2007/08/27 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council July 9, 2007 Regular Meeting Page 4 Ms. Thomas said that she takes some offense to the disrespect to the Commissioners time that the 1 statement of Council Member Stigney makes. The reason for delay is that they have other things 2 that they need to do and they disagree with the timeline. They disagree at the statement of 3 allowing citizens a defined period of time for the petition and to take it away would be a 4 significant taking away of rights of the citizen that they do not support. She further said that 5 what was called ambiguity was left to best fit the median needs of the community and any further 6 changes would require significant philosophical debate. 7 8 Ms. Thomas said that this is at a stage where decisions need to be made and, if this does not 9 move forward, they will put it to a vote. 10 11 Council Member Mueller said that in cleaning these chapters up and developing the flow chart, 12 the document becomes easier for residents to use. She then said that it may not be the perfect 13 document but it is an improvement and she feels it is important for the Council to accept the hard 14 work that has been done to this point. She further said that some of the issues raised will need to 15 be put to a vote as they will change the intent of the Charter. 16 17 Mayor Marty said that he appreciates the work of the Charter Commission. He then said that this 18 is not perfect but it is much better than it was before. 19 20 Ms. Thomas said that the Charter Commission, City Attorney, and City Staff could, if the 21 Council had something specific on an amendment to allow the Council to make further 22 restrictions on the petition sufficiency, bring that amendment back to Council fairly quickly. 23 However, if that one amendment would not be enough, then it would take much more time and 24 would require a philosophical debate. 25 26 City Attorney Riggs said that the Charter Commission has done a great job and he is able to put 27 aside his concern on the publication dates. He then said that the issue of whether there is a 28 petition that is sufficient and whether there should be a sentence to cover circumventing the 29 process. 30 31 Ms. Thomas said that the Charter Commission has discussed that but feels that it would be easier 32 for Council to do that by Ordinance than it would be to add it to the Amendment. 33 34 City Administrator Ulrich requested Staff be allowed time to work on the language to address the 35 sufficiency issue and bring this back to the next meeting. 36 37 Council Member Mueller pointed out that Mr. Thomas had asked for input from Council on 38 things that members would like to see. She then said that she understands that a frivolous 39 petition could delay action on an Ordinance but she believes that the body of this could be 40 accepted now and add to the wish list for the Charter Commission to look at a definition of a 41 frivolous petition and how to handle it. 42 43 David Jahnke said that he did not think that Council Member Stigney’s comment was offensive 44 because he meant that this is so close to the finish line it should be finished. 45