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li <br /> a <br /> t 611 <br /> Jjj <br /> league of minnesota cities <br /> June 1 , 1979 <br /> Willard C. Doty, Chairman <br /> Mounds View Charter Commission <br /> 3049 Bronson Drive <br /> Mounds -View, MPS. 55432 <br /> Dear Bill : <br /> This letter is in response to yours of May 23, containing questions about proposed charter <br /> provisions. I will respond to them in the order in which you presented them. <br /> First you asked whether a charter can impose a percentage limit on the increase from year <br /> to year in the city operating budget. The answer would be a qualified yes. Though I <br /> know of no Minnesota Charters which take this approach, it would be theoretically possible <br /> for a charter to impose a limit on the operating budget, -to the extent that certain <br /> activities, programs and expenditures are not mandated by state law. Of course, those <br /> mandated state programs, such as Dutch Elm Disease Control , Building Code Inforcement, Metro <br /> Planning Act Effectuation and the Local Conduct of Elections, as well as many, many more, <br /> will have to be carried on and will almost certainly be interpreted to be free from any <br /> limitations on operating funds which may be placed in the charter. In other situations, <br /> where the program itself is not mandated, but where if it is undertaken, the way it is done <br /> is controlled by state law, you may be in a more grey area. An example of this is the <br /> requirement to employ licensed police officers and be subject to binding arbitration in <br /> labor disputes involving police officers. Of course, even if it were determined that since <br /> you are not required to employ police officers, law enforcement is not a mandated program <br /> and therefore, no state law requires any local expenditure for law enforcement, with <br /> overall limits on operating expenses, the mandated programs would probably eat up most or <br /> all of the charter authorized operating expenses, thus, starving the non-mandated but <br /> locally popular programs like law enforcement. Furthermore, to the extent that a charter <br /> limit on operating expenses made it impossible to meet state standards such as in provision <br /> of fire protection and construction and maintenance of highways, some state aids might be <br /> lost. <br /> For these reasons and because it would be very difficult to write into a charter a workable <br /> limitation on city operating expenses , I would certai. • mend that this route not be <br /> taken. I think the more traditional means o providin. .opular contro over •overnmenta <br /> action are in. - cons rain1nj an. can se equa y e ective. R en I speak of <br /> tradirtional methods, I mean the initiative, referendum and recall . <br /> '� �� ) F-`F(rlcver f)lflidirlg, i [0 Cf::Cdar ,street .`:•i tsrit F3c1l.P ((It(I(lf;`;l7Y.r'. (.-15 � � i-1 i c <br />