HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 10 2004 Commission Memo to Council re Res 2003-04 and 2003-05m v City of
Mounds
View
Charter Commission
Chair
Jonathan J Thomas
763-784-5205
Vice Chair
Michele Sandback
763-783-1770
2nd Vice Chair
Daniel Freimuth
763-780-3371
Secretary
Brian Amundsen
763-786-5699
Bill Doty
763-786-3421
Matthew Eenigenburg
763-783-7216
Jean Miller
763-786-3959
William Mori
763-784-3645
Barbara Thomas
763-780-6226
William Werner Sr
763-784-3603
Date:May 10, 2004
To: Mounds View City Council
From:Jonathan Thomas, Chair, Mounds View Charter Commission
RE:Charter Commission Agenda Items for Monday May 9, 2004
In regard to the specific agenda items for Monday May 9, 2004, regarding resolutions 2003-04
and 2003-05, submitted by the Charter Commission, we would like to provide some additional
background on the discussions held by the Charter Commission.
Resolution 2003-04
In Chapter 2, Section 2.06, you will find a proposed amendment to the language related to the
duties of the Mayor. To provide background for this discussion, this is an ongoing issue from City
Staff memos and members of the public maintained in Charter records. The opinions expressed in
these discussions were that current language which states the Mayor “shall have a vote as a
member.... but shall have no administrative duties”, could be interpreted to mean that the Mayor
was not allowed to participate in discussions pertaining to city policy even during the performance
of Council duties. This resolution should clarify the meaning to be that the Mayor has no
administrative authority as an individual outside of the duties of the Council but that when
administrative functions are performed by the Council, the Mayor is entitled to participate.
In section 4.05 we have recommended language to clarify the procedure used for filling vacancies
on the City Council due to a possibility for misinterpretation of the existing language and even
though the timing of a candidate filing a vacancy is covered by MN Statute it was determined to be
important to add the language for consistency and clarity.
In section 9.01 the additional reference to “as amended” for the reference to MN Statute is for
consistency where the intention of the Charter is to be concurrent with rather than to take
precedence over the referenced statute.
Resolution 2003-05
A significant effort by the Charter Commission was used on Chapter 5 to implement changes for
clarity and consistency, not as a proposal of new policies regarding Initiative, Referendum and
Recall. Previous inconsistencies and a construct that did not clearly present the time lines, resulted
in our choice to use a replacement language style.
Summary
We would like to restate that the current resolutions that have been submitted to the Council for
review are all intended to be clarifications to Charter language only, with the intent that the
Council would be able to unanimously approve them for submission by Ordinance without
requiring a ballot question. We realize that there may additional issues to be considered beyond
the scope of language clarification. If there are additional amendments that would require
substantive changes to these sections that the City Council would like to propose, the Charter
Commission would review those issues with the intention of placing them on the ballot. We look
forward to hearing the Council’s opinion on the resolutions we have proposed.