Laserfiche WebLink
Honorable Mayor and City Council, <br />This letter is a response to your recent request of the Mounds View Charter Commission in <br />regards to our interpretation of Chapter 6, Section 6.02, Subdivision3. <br />We would like to note for the record that although you have asked the Commission for its <br />opinion on such matters, it is the City Council and its legal counsel that has the authority to <br />interpret the charter, not the Charter Commission. This fact was confirmed recently by the <br />League of Minnesota Cities charter expert in his testimony before our commission. <br />It is the Commission's opinion that the spirit of the charter section in question is one of public <br />accountability and information. It is not the desire or the goal of the charter or the Charter <br />Commission membership to seek to impose rigid and bureaucratic rules upon the City Council or <br />its staff. <br />The historical context of this particular section of the charter comes from a point in the city's <br />history where there was a perception that city department heads were not readily accessible to <br />the public to take input and questions from the council or the public. The charter clause in <br />question requires every department head to appear publicly at a regularly scheduled council <br />meeting quarterly (approx. every 3 months). <br />It is the recommendation of this Commission that any appearance of a department head before <br />the city council during a 3 month period shall be viewed as an acceptable fulfillment of 6.02 <br />subd. 3 of the Mounds View charter with the following caveat: Such an appearance is to be <br />noted in advance in the published proposed agenda of the City Council so that members of the <br />public will know when a particular department head will be presenting items at council <br />meetings. <br />We recognize that department heads are eligible for "comp time" of an equal amount of time as <br />is taken up appearing before the city council in the evening. Therefore it is the expressed desire <br />of this Commission to have city staff's efforts focused in on the efficient and professional <br />execution <br />of their duties and not to waste their time with additional appearances at city council meetings if <br />they have already appeared before the council and the public in recent weeks. <br />In the event that a department head does not appear before the city council to present items for <br />the council's information and consideration, the Clerk-Administrator or their designate should <br />arrange for that department head to appear before the city council to give an update on their <br />department and that in similar fashion the council's agenda should publicly note that such a <br />department head will be present at the next meeting of the council. <br />Respectfully submitted, <br />Jonathan Thomas, Chair <br />Mounds View Charter Commission