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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes 11-21-2023Mounds View Charter Commission Minutes — APPROVED Tuesday, November 21, 2023 1.Call to Order. Regular meeting came to order at 6:30 PM. 2.Roll Call. Present:B. Amundsen, D. Erickson, E. James, M. Meehan, J. Peterson, G. Quick, R. Scholl, R. Warren Excused:A. Pratt Absent: Also present: Council Liaison Gary Meehlhause, City Administrator Nyle Zikmund 3.Approval of Agenda and Minutes. A. Approve Agenda. Chair R. Warren introduced the Preliminary Agenda. MOTION, by E. James, and seconded, by R. Scholl, to adopt the Preliminary Agenda as presented. No discussion occurred. Motion Adopted 8-0 B. Approve Minutes. Chair R. Warren asked for review of the Secretary's September 19, 2023, Meeting Minutes. MOTION, by G Quick, and seconded, by B. Amundsen, to approve the Meeting Minutes as presented. No discussion occurred.Motion Adopted 8-0 4.Citizens Comment from the Floor. Gary Meehlhause, 7400 Park View Drive. Gary read from his memorandum to the commission. A summary is he thanked the commission for recommending the charter amendment to appoint a vice-acting mayor in the case of a vacancy in the mayor's office. Discussed his concern about the council acting as a four person council for multiple months and the possibility of two simultaneous vacancies. He asked the commission to revisit the process for filling an open council seat by a succession appointment process. Chair R. Warren asked if there were any comments. R. Scholl thanked Mr. Meehlhause for his information. E. James as for explanation about the succession model reasons, which were answered by Mr. Meehlhause. 5.Reports of Chair. None presented. 6.Reports of Members. Secretary B. Amundsen reported that he emailed the approved resolutions, but signed copies are available if any commissioner would like to have them. 7.Unfinished Business. A. Legal response to Council multi vacancy question. Chair R. Warren asked if any further discussion was needed on the issue this evening. Secretary B. Amundsen reported that all members should have the email addressing multiple vacancies and emergency powers. City attorney J. Sathe also apologized for not being available this evening. Discussion occurred about the memorandum. It was requested that city attorney Joe Sathe be invited to the January 16, 2024, meeting to answer questions regarding the memorandum. 8.New Business A. Review Chair's Annual Report to the Court. Chair R. Warren requested if the report is his report, or the commission's report? Secretary B. Amundsen said statute identifies it as the Chair's report. Chair R. Warren requested discussion, and lacking discussion requested a motion to approve the report. Motion, by B. Amundsen, and seconded, by R. Scholl, to approve the Annual Report. Discussion occurred, no amendments were made. Motion adopted 8-0 Page 1 of 4 Mounds View Charter Commission Minutes — APPROVED Tuesday, November 21, 2023 B. Resolution 2023-07 Bylaws Article III Meeting resolution draft. Secretary B. Amundsen indicated that city attorney Joe Sathe and he identified an error in the requirement for the commission to meet and address a citizen petition to amend the charter. City attorney J. Sathe recommends striking the language as indicated in the draft, before the commission this evening. They also recommended that Bylaws Article IV should have the special meeting notice for a petition added. R. Scholl suggested that a note be added to the language, which refers to Article IV and other requirements requiring a meeting. Chair R. Warren asked if this was critical to act on this evening? B. Amundsen said it could wait until the next meeting in January if city attorney is able to join us. R. Scholl expressed concern that the reference to special meeting requirements for a petition is pushed to Article IV and may be time sensitive. B. Amundsen also expressed concern that there isn't a designated person who represents the Commission when it is not in session. It is connected to who would the petition be delivered to, when does the timer start for commission action. Chair R. Warren asked that what ever language is changed that it is clear to a citizen that if they have a petition what do they do next. C. Resolution 2023-09 Bylaws Article IV Amendments resolution draft. Secretary B. Amundsen indicated he and city attorney have discussed correcting the language to correct serious issues not inline with statute. City attorney hoped to respond to the draft but had not had a chance to do so. The draft before the commission is a summary with added significant language to correct errors about timing and add references to statute. The draft does not specify a step by step for each of the methods. The draft is still preliminary and feedback should be sent to Secretary B. Amundsen. Discussion occurred about petition signature and a desire to define a municipal election and what is the correct percentage of petition signatures? Secretary B. Amundsen was requested to contact the city attorney if the Bylaws can define election types and to contact Ramsey County elections to see what they use as a standard of measure for petitions. 9.Next Regular Meeting. The next regular meeting of the Commission is January 16, 2024, at 6:30 PM. Secretary B. Amundsen stated the January agenda will have city attorney Joe Sathe invited to address council vacancy, along with resolutions 2023-07, 09, and a resolution for 2024 meeting dates. He asked if the meeting resolution should be for the whole year, the consensus was to be the whole year. 10.Adjournment: With no other items for the Commission to consider, the Chair asked for motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn, by M. Meehan, and seconded, by D. Erickson. Chair R. Warren adjourned the meeting at 7:29 PM. Respectfully submitted, Brian Amundsen, Secretary, Charter Commission of Mounds View MN Approved as amended, by Charter Commission, on January 16, 2024. Attesting, Brian Amundsen, Secretary, Charter Commission of Mounds View, MN Chair R. Warren requested that Gary Meehlhause's November written statement be attached to these minutes. See next page for the document submitted by Mr. Meehlhause: Page 2 of 4 Mounds View Charter Commission Minutes — APPROVED Tuesday, November 21, 2023 Gary Meehlhause, 7400 Park View Drive. Even though my comments tonight are based on my experience as a City elected official, they are being made as a resident of the City of Mounds View and reflect my thoughts only and do not represent the City Council. In fact, my Council colleagues are not aware of these thoughts nor my intent to present them to the Charter Commission. May 20th was a tragically historic day for the City of Mounds View with the unfortunate passing of my Council colleague and personal friend Al Hull. For the first time in the City’s 65 year history, the office of Mayor became vacate before the Mayor’s term had actually expired. As you know, both the City Charter and state statue provide a mechanism for temporarily filling a Mayor vacancy with the requirement that the City Council appoint a “Acting Mayor” at each year’s first City Council meeting. With the Acting Mayor temporarily filling the vacate Mayor’s seat, the question was asked what happens if the Acting Mayor isn’t available to conduct a Council meeting or sign documents that are time sensitive. The Council obviously got out in front of the Charter Commission by adopting an ordinance creating a “Vice Acting Mayor” appointment in the event the appointed Acting Mayor had to temporarily fill the Mayor’s position. I want to thank the Charter Commission for also recognizing this need, and passing a resolution updating the Charter to reflect this unfortunate scenario. As an update, the Council has unanimously passed the first and second readings for the Charter update. As an aside there was a situation where documents involving a conduit bond financing project had to be signed on a specific date, and this closing would have been impacted if the Acting Mayor wasn’t available and there was no appointed alternate. When the Charter Commission decided to maintain the Charter’s present requirement that any Council vacancy would be filled through a special election if there was 365 or more days left in the term, I thanked the Commission for at least giving consideration to changing this time frame. I did also indicate that I could think of a scenario where the Council could operate as a 4 member Council for 5 to 6 months because of the State Legislature’s decision to define only specific months for holding a special election. The Mounds View City Council has been officially operating as a 4 person Council since May 20th and in reality since April 1st when Mayor Hull began his chemo treatments as the last City Council meeting he officially led was the second meeting in March. Thus, the Council has operated as a 4 person Council for 7 months. With Council member Linstrom’s election to Mayor on November 7th, the Council will continue to act as a 4 person Council until next April’s special election to fill the remainder of Mayor Lindstrom’s council term. Thus, the Council will have operated as a 4 person Council for one year. A 4 person Council obviously can work, but it is not an ideal scenario particularly when it becomes 5 or more months. Major decisions can be decided by the opposition of 2 votes rather than 3 votes for or against. I will also tell you there are other items that are not time sensitive that the current 4 person Council has chosen to table until there is a 5 person Council. I personally recommended tabling one item I am opposed to because I wanted it to either pass or fail on a 3 – 2 vote rather than fail with 2 votes which was the likely outcome. There is another scenario that could happen with full recognition that the odds of it occurring is remote. With the current 4 person Council, there is no current solution provided by the City Charter in the event not one but two additional seats became unexpectedly vacant. I know City Attorney Joe Sathe has provided a memo to the Commission related to Council vacancies, and thus I won’t elaborate any further in that regard. My primary purpose for speaking tonight is I believe the Charter Commission needs to revisit the process for filling an open Council seat when the seat is going to be vacant for 5+ months. I support filling the seat as soon as a special election can be held. However, I believe there should be some Charter approved appointment process to temporarily fill the vacancy until the election can occur. A statuary City has this option, and it was exercised in 2022 by both Shoreview and Arden Hills, and in Shoreview’s situation the vacancy occurred in the 4th year of the Council term. Page 3 of 4 Mounds View Charter Commission Minutes — APPROVED Tuesday, November 21, 2023 I recognize the Charter Commission has in the past expressed concern about the appointment process possibly resulting in the Council majority appointing a “friend” who they may have also recruited. I have a recommendation for the Commission to consider if there is willingness to discuss a temporary Council appointment process. The Charter could identify an appointment process that designates the following City Commission Chairs as the temporary vacancy replacement until the election is held. Just as there is a succession sequence for the office of President of the United States (Vice-President, Speaker of the House, etc.) I would recommend the following sequential succession for temporarily filling a vacate Council seat could be established in the Charter: 1.Current Charter Commission Chair 2.Current Planning Commission Chair 3.Current Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Commission Chair 4.Current Charter Commission Vice-Chair This identified approach takes away the Council choosing the “temporary” replacement. In fact, as you well know the Council has no ultimate say in the appointment of Charter Commission members nor its Chair and Vice-Chair selections. The Council does appoint members to the City Commissions and approves the Commission Chairs. However, these appointments and approvals usually following the Commission’s recommendations. The temporary appointee would continue to serve on their Commission, but would temporarily step aside as the Committee’s Chair during their temporary City Council assignment. I thank you for your time this evening. As a resident with elected official experience, I seriously hope that the Commission will take into consideration both my and City Attorney Sathe’s concern about a Council vacancy that is 5+ months in duration, and consider the identification of a temporary solution to this situation in the City of Mounds View’s City Charter. Page 4 of 4