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Kurt Ulrich February 2, 2004 Page 2 • members, and such charter provisions shall prevail over any inconsistent provisions of this subdivision. While I was unable to locate through the District Court Administrator's Office, the City, or the Charter Commission, any copy of the original petition requesting appointment of a charter commission for the City of Mounds View, information provided by Mr. Duane McCarty, the original drafter of the petition, notes that no specific number for the size of the charter commission was established within the petition. (Please note that the Charter Commission was appointed pursuant to a petition of voters, rather than through a resolution from the City Council; as such,the size of the Commission was not established by the City Council). In addition, the Mounds View City Charter does not set the size of the charter commission at any specific number of members. Thus, the size of the Commission is determined within the above-referenced statutory limits by the Ramsey County District Court. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 410.05, subd. 2 sets forth the requirements for appointment to vacancies in the Charter Commission. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 410.05, subd. 2 provides in part as follows: Vacancies in the commission shall be filled by appointment of the chief judge for the unexpired terms. Upon the expiration of each term, the chief judge shall appoint new commission members. If the chief judge fails to appoint new commission • members within 30 days,then thereafter the governing body of the city shall appoint new commission members, unless within the 30-day period the chief judge indicates in writing to the governing body an intention to appoint new members, in which case, the chief judge shall have an additional 60 days within which to make the appointment. The appointment shall be made by order filed with the court administrator of the district court. While the court administrator's office did not provide any recent court orders pertaining to appointments to the Charter Commission, representations have been made that recently adopted resolutions by the Charter Commission (such resolutions appear to have been adopted after discussions with the court administrator's office — see memorandum provided by Charter Commission Chair Jonathan Thomas) have established the membership number of the Charter Commission that is to be appointed by the chief judge of the Ramsey County District Court. Assuming these representations to be true, the reduction in the size of the Commission from fifteen members to eleven members would appear to be consistent with the statutory authority for establishing the size of such a charter commission which states: "The size of the Commission shall be determined . . . by the court." (See Minnesota Statutes Chapter 410.05, subd. 1 —which does not provide for any specific procedure for the court to utilize to determine the size of a charter commission in the statute). Based upon the information provided to me and the representations made to me regarding the reduction in size of the Charter Commission membership and the actions of the chief judge of the Ramsey County District Court and the Charter Commission, such a reduction in size appears to be • within the authority provided by Minnesota statutes. Thus, the operating size and the quorum for purposes of conducting the Charter Commission's business both appear to have been properly established by the Court's direction and the Charter Commission's actions, including amending the bylaws of the Mounds View Charter Commission.