HomeMy WebLinkAboutSecretary Amundsen Report - American Legal 03-02-2023Secretary's Report of Typo and Date inconsistency Items prior to Codification of Charter.
History:
The City in 2020 conducted a City Code review and hired American Legal Publishing (ALP) to review
the City Code updates and codify or check them for certain legal consistencies. The ALP editors also
reviewed the City Charter, because it is referenced in the City Code. The ALP editors then created a
report including a section on “typographical” inconsistencies in the City Charter. The following is that
report's section on the City Charter and suggested updates or changes.
21)We have noted some inconsistencies within your charter.
A) For instance, numbers are not consistently expressed. In some instances, the word is
written out followed by the digit in parentheses and at other times, only the number is used.
Thus: “... at least fourteen ( 14) calendar days....” versus “... at least 14 calendar days....” We
suggest creating and maintaining consistency in this regard even in your charter.
B) Additionally, some of the sections with multiple paragraphs contain “ subdivision”
captions, but not all do. Again, the format should be made consistent.
22)Section 2.06 The Mayor’ s power and duties. Please note that there is an extraneous
“Subdivision 1” caption at the beginning of the first paragraph, which should be deleted.
23)Section 3.01 Council meetings. Please note that this section contains two instances in which
“twenty- four hours notice” should have an apostrophe after the term “hours” such that it should
appear, “ twenty-four hours’ notice.”
24)Section 3.07 Signing, and publication of ordinances. Please note that this section contains an
instance in which “four- fifths vote” should contain an apostrophe after “four- fifths” so that it
should appear , “four- fifths’ vote.”
25)Section 4.04 Special and advisory elections except for elected office. Please note that this
section contains an instance of “fifteen days prior notice,” in which an apostrophe should be
inserted after “days” so that it should appear, “fifteen days’ prior notice.”
26)Section 4.05 Vacancy of municipal elected office. Please note that in subdivision 5., the term
“120 day period” should contain a hyphen so that it should appear, “120-day period.”
27)Section 6.03 Duties of the City Administrator. Please note that this section contains a reference
to Chapter 106 of the City Code. In order to assist code book users in locating this referenced
material, this reference should be revised to read §32. 015 based upon where it will appear in
the re-codification.
28)Section 8.06 Certification of administrative offense penalties. Please note that the ordinance
history at the bottom of this section does not have a passage month, only a day and year. You
may wish to include the month, if known.
Please clearly advise whether any specific revisions should be made to the charter in light of the
Update: March 2, 2023 page 1 of 4
Secretary's Report of Typo and Date inconsistency Items prior to Codification of Charter.
above. Absent clear instructions to the contrary, we shall retain your charter exactly as it is
presently edited.
(end of ALP report)
Status
At the November 2022 Commission discussion of codification progress, the Secretary reported that he
was told there were some typo issues to address. Chair R. Warren directed Secretary B. Amundsen to
find-out what were the specific details and what needed to happen as a result. After receiving the
complete APL Editor's comments (presented above), reviewing the report for details, and
corresponding with the city and city attorney, Kennedy and Gravens (K&G), this report is being
presented for discussion and action.
The Commission has been advised to determine how it would like to proceed. That advice comes
without direction that the typo's must be fixed for any legal reason, other than what APL has brought
out. If the Commission would like to make the changes, then it is K&G's opinion that the Commission
will need to issue resolution(s) to incorporate the suggested corrections. K&G suggested the typo's can
be handled with a single resolution referencing an attachment of the complete marked up Charter, using
the standard manner of cross-outs and inserts. Because ALP suggest there are multiple instances of the
date/numeric, possessive apostrophe, and subdivision issues, a more thorough review of the Charter, to
find all incidences of these type of errors, was a prudent next step before presenting the resolution to
the Commission. Below is the results of how many and what changes would be needed for those three
issues.
The research found that 13 pages of the 28 pages of the Charter required some form of typo change.
Chapter 1 Name, Boundaries, Powers, and General Provisions
Is on one page and has no corrections required.
Chapter 2 Form of Government
Is on two pages and one page needs the ALP referenced deletion of a duplicate
“Subdivision 1”.
Chapter 3 Council Procedure
Is on three pages and two need the ALP referenced corrections and also may need
subdivision for multiple paragraphs to Section 3.07 for consistency as indicated by ALP.
Chapter 4 Nomination and Elections
Is on two pages, both need the recently passed updates, but additionally has eight
“number (x)-day” corrections needed in other subdivisions.
Chapter 5 Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
Is five pages but none need correction.
Chapter 6 Administration of City Affairs
Is one page and needs the ALP City Code reference updated.
Chapter 7 Taxation and Finances
Is seven pages long and four pages need updates of number written or hyphen
correction, as well as addition of subdivision in two sections for consistency of form.
Chapter 8 Public Improvements and Special Assessments
Is two pages and needs number numerically added or hyphen correction, need 8.04
Subdivision 1 Procedures process improved for readability, and added subdivisions in 8.06
Update: March 2, 2023 page 2 of 4
Secretary's Report of Typo and Date inconsistency Items prior to Codification of Charter.
Certification of Administrative Offense Penalties for consistency.
Chapter 9 Eminent Domain
Is one page and has no correction required.
Chapter 10 Franchises
Is one page and needs two numeric number additions required.
Chapter 11 Public Ownership and Operation of Utilities
Is one page and needs two numeric number additions required.
Chapter 12 Miscellaneous and Transitory Provisions
Is two pages with no corrections required.
UPDATE – from City Attorney.
Regarding the American Legal Publishing topic updates, I understand that the topic of how to proceed
was not addressed. In addition to the ALP corrections noted in your Secretary Report, I would like to
propose a number of other consistency items that the commission may want to consider given that we
have the opportunity to do so at this time as part of the larger review of the charter. These include, for
example:
- Citations to Minnesota Statutes. I recommend updating references to specific laws to be in the
following format: Minnesota Statutes, section XXX.XX for the first instance in a chapter and then
could utilize Minn. Stat. XXX.XX after the first instance.
-Section 5.02 typo. In section 5.02, it looks like the term "respectfully" was used instead of the
term "respectively".
-Capitalization. There are certain instances where terms are capitalized that are not proper nouns
and should not be capitalized. For example, in Section 2.02 the term "Ordinance" is capitalized as is the
term "Boards"; in Section 2.06, the term "City Government" is capitalized; in Section 5.02 the terms
"President" and "Presidential" are capitalized; etc. I also recommend not capitalizing the terms
"Mayor" and "Councilmember" because the charter is not referring to any specific individual.
-Web site. While "web site" is not technically incorrect, "website" is more commonly used and
updating the charter accordingly when the commission has the opportunity to do so seems like a good
idea.
Conclusions:
With this information found, I believe there are two paths forward. First, because the changes do not
affect the majority of the Charter, I do not recommend attaching the entire charter to any resolution.
Including the entire charter may result in a public perception that the Commission and Council are
attempting to replace the Charter, while also being more expensive to publishing the entire Charter, as
is required for the public hearings. Instead, I believe we could make the suggested changes in a single
resolution, which summarizes the actions to be modified by chapter (example above), while the
attachment would include the detail paragraph and sentence being modified for just the 13 pages.
A second option, if the Commission would choose, is to take each chapter individually in separate
resolutions, listing the specific change(s) and the attachment would again contain the detail. The result
Update: March 2, 2023 page 3 of 4
Secretary's Report of Typo and Date inconsistency Items prior to Codification of Charter.
would be no different than the first, however would occur over a longer period of time, due to multiple
resolutions (nine in total). It would draw out and delay the codification process for the Charter, which is
already waiting for these and the previous four resolutions changes to chapters 4 (elections) and 7 (tax
levy limit). It would cause more public hearings and publishing cost for the City. It would add to the
Council action agenda, since each resolution requires a unanimous ordinance vote of the Council under
410.12 Subd 7. It might provide the Council an opportunity to review the changes and make other
suggestions by chapter. From research, I don't believe it increases the cost of codification, because the
City is charged by page, regardless of number of changes.
Since the web page currently has the May 12, 2013, Charter, which is missing the chapters 4 and 7
updates, I would like the Commission to authorize research into correcting the on-line Charter with the
approved updates adding a foot note indicating the official version will be added as soon as possible.
The codification process requires at least ninety (90) days.
Next Steps:
How does the Commission wish to proceed with both the correction of typos and or web-page update?
Respectfully,
Brian Amundsen
Secretary, Charter Commission of Mounds View, MN
763-786-5699
Update: March 2, 2023 page 4 of 4