10-03-2005 SPECIAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Legal Issues I. Is the conveyance of property a legislative act subject to referendum? II. May the City authorize conveyance of the property under Minnesota Statutes sections 471.64 and 465.035, without regard to city charter provisions? III. Does Minnesota Statutes Chapter 462 preempt the city charter referendum provision? Legal Discussion The following are legal arguments that would support a finding by the City Council to deny a petition for referendum on the sale of the property. I. The Conveyance of Property is Not a Legislative Act Subject to Referendum. The power of referendum is limited to acts which are legislative in character. Hanson v. City of Granite Falls, 529 N.W.2d 485, 487 (Minn. Ct. App. 1995)(citing Oakman v. City of Eveleth, 203 N.W. 514 (1925). To determine whether an ordinance is legislative and subject to a referendum, the courts have distinguished between legislative, administrative and quasi-judicial acts of a city. Id. at 488. In the Oakman case, a taxpayer sought to require the city to hold a referendum on an ordinance authorizing the settlement of a lawsuit against the city. The court found that the ordinance did not enact a law, but was instead the exercise of an administrative function: We think the measure is one that calls for investigation and discretion, and, if such matters are not to be met and handled as a part of the daily routine of business of a municipality, but must be submitted to the people to make a law for each controversy that may arise, we are drifting from the ideals of representative government. In fact, the theory of initiative and referendum was directed at supposed evils of legislation alone . . . To allow a referendum to be invoked in order to delay executive conduct would destroy the efficiency necessary to the successful administration of the business affairs of a city. Oakman, 203 N.W. at 517 (emphasis added). The Oakman court also rejected the idea that the matter of awarding a contract is a legislative act: The orders of the city council as to which the referendum is sought in the case at bar are clearly executive and not legislative in their nature. A direction to an officer to sign a specified contract with a named person to do a defined thing for a specified price is not a legislative act. . . It is not the laying down of a rule, a with the provisions of this Charter to initiate and adopt ordinances and resolutions, to require measures passed by the Council to be referred to the electorate for approval or disapproval, and to recall elected public officials. These powers shall be called the initiative, the referendum, and the recall, respectively.”