HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 8 2004 Memo re Chapter 2 and Chapter 5m 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 8, 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 related to Charter Commission proposed changes, we would like to
provide some additional background on the discussions held by the Charter Commission. They center
specifically around changes to Chapter 5 and Chapter 2.
Recently, City Attorney Riggs provided an opinion to the City Council related to the constitutionality of the
Recall provisions included in Chapter 5. The Charter Commission did discuss this during our efforts on
Sections 5.01-.08. We feel it is important for the City Council to know that the changes we are proposing for
these sections are for clarity and consistency, not as a proposal of new city policy regarding elections. Since this
is not intended to be a substantive change to the Charter, we felt removing sections in their entirety was beyond
the scope of the resolution. We dealt with a similar constitutionality question with Chapter 4, Section 4.02
Subdivision 2 regarding Term Limits. The Commission and the City Council determined at that time that the
most appropriate method to amend the language was simply to footnote the section with the required legal
disclosure that this portion of the Charter has been determined to be unconstitutional. It is the recommendation
of the Mounds View Charter Commission to maintain this method when needed as here in Chapter 5.
In Chapter 2, Section 2.06, you will find proposed changes for 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 was that the current language that 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 where administrative functions are performed by the
Council, the Mayor is entitled to participate.
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. If there are
additional amendments to these sections that the City Council would like to propose that would require
substantive changes, 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.