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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes o2 May 25, 2004 Page 2 1 V. GENERAL POLICY BUSINESS OF THE COUNCIL. 2 A. Ordinance 2004-002; re: Charitable g ambling (2nd reading) 3 City Manager Morrison noted he requested that City Attorney Gilligan prepare an amendment to 4 the City's charitable gambling ordinance based on the fact that the current ordinance allowed 5 charitable gambling to on-sale municipals only. He explained, with the closing of Stonehouse, 6 the City no longer owned an on-sale and, with Spectators located in the old Stonehouse location, 7 he felt it was important to get the ordinance changed prior to the opening of the restaurant. He 8 added he passed on the ordinance to some of the Sports Boosters with whom he had been 9 working regarding the charitable gambling license for Spectators. 10 11 Mr. Mornson cited a May 19, 2004, memo from Mr. Gilligan to the City that addressed questions 12 and concerns Council had introduced at the first reading on May 11, 2004. He discussed the 13 following information, which resulted from research conducted by Mr. Gilligan: 14 15 Under Minnesota Statutes, Section 349.213, the City had authority to adopt more stringent 16 regulation of lawful gambling than provided by Minnesota law, including the prohibition of 17 lawful gambling. The City could not require that an organization licensed by the Minnesota 18 Gambling Control Board obtain a license or permit from the City as a condition for it to conduct 19 charitable gambling in the City; however,before issuing a permit premises allowing lawful 20 gambling at a location in the City, Minnesota law required that the Board notify the City Council 21 and the City Council must approve the issuance of the premises permit by resolution. 22 23 The Minnesota Attorney General opined that under this authority the City could regulate the 24 following with respect to lawful gambling in its jurisdiction: 25 ■ Determine what kind of lawful gambling could take place. 26 ■ Specify hours of operation. 27 ■ Specify where it could and could not occur. 28 ■ Limit the number of sites where it would be allowed. 29 ■ Prohibit lawful gambling altogether. 30 31 While Minnesota law required the approval of the City Council before the Gambling Control 32 Board could issue a premises permit for a licensed organization to conduct gambling in the City, 33 the statute did not offer any guidance with respect to reasons the City Council might disapprove 34 an organization's application. If it wished to do so, the City Council could develop criteria on 35 which to base its decision; however, this criteria should probably not limit approval to only 36 locally based organizations, as the Minnesota Attorney General had opined that a city limiting 37 approval of lawful gambling to only locally based organizations might be a possible violation of 38 the equal protection clause of the Minnesota and United States Constitution. 39 40 While the City might not be able to adopt an ordinance that would limit charitable gambling in 41 the City to only locally based organizations, Mr. Gilligan believed the City could include in its 42 ordinance on charitable gambling a provision that provided that charitable gambling was limited 43 to only one location in the City and that permitted only one licensed organization to conduct 44 charitable gambling at that location. By doing so,the City might be able to effectively retain 45 control regarding which licensed organizations conducted charitable gambling in the City. If, in