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-4- terms terms until the amendment is filed.] I obtained the floor to discuss some of the issues. First, I stated that the Council has never said it is refusing to file the amendment. Rather the Council is only delaying the filing until the Minn. Supreme Court rules on the state constitutionality of term limits for local officials. I reminded the commission that the whole Charter review process was started to remove an unconstitutional provision from the Charter (petitioning to challenge resolutions of the Council). It is not quick and easy to remove unconstitutional laws. I showed the Campaign Finance Law handout given to candidates who file and noted that a law ruled unconstitutional in about 1988 was still being given to candidates for office. I personally feel my oath of office to uphold the U.S. & state constitutions directs me to avoid putting another unconstitutional law in the city code when a matter of a few short weeks or months will decide the issue. I think it is a disservice to citizens to put illegal laws on the books, then it takes a lawyer and lots of reading of footnotes to determine if what appears as the law, is really the law. I thought the commissioners should understand why Jim Thompson direct-tow the council as he did. He wanted to keep us out of lawsuits to save our tax dollars and he did not feel we had a "ripe" legal issue for any court until term limits were voted into effect and the city was put in the position of defending a law that might be unconstitutional. After the election we learned the state constitutionality would soon be ruled on and by delaying filing of the amendment a short while (January - possibly June), we would be able to avoid putting an unconstitutional law in the city ordinance books. There was additional discussion by Russ Warren and Jerry Linke. Both Jerry and Sue challenged Duane's list of options as lacking legal authority. Sue stated that there was no provision in Chapter 410 on Charter Commissions allowing them to sue the City Council or act on behalf of the Council to file the amendment. Jerry Linke stated that no funds would be available for this purpose. Although state law authorizes the Charter Commission to spend $1500 per year on legal and related expenses on amending and writing the Charter, there seems to be nothing in the list of expenses that allows commencing commission lawsuits. Duane said he could just get advice from the Judge who appoints the commissioners. I noted that would be a violation of the Judicial Code of Ethics--providing legal advise to potential litigants