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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006 04-26 CHCAMEETING OF THE BROOKLYN CENTER CHARTER COMMISSION APRIL 26, 2006 AGENDA Call to Order: 7:00 p.m. 2. Roll Call Consideration of the Minutes of January 25, 2006 Meeting 4. Old Business a. Appearance before City Council b. Report of Audit Chair 5. New Business a. Letter from City Attorney Charles LeFevere b. Study Session of City Council of April 10, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. C. Any Other New Business? 6. Adjournment City of Brooklyn Center CHARTER COMMISSION Court Appointed The Charter Commission reviews the existing charter, considers proposed changes and makes recommendations to the City Council, and safeguards the concept of Home -Rule under the existing charter and Home Rule provisions in the state statutes. Commissioners serve a four -year term. Chairperson and fourteen members. Stanley Leino Chair 2005 7118 France Ave N (29) 763 234 -6137 e -mail: flyfmn7 @msn.com 3/13/97- 3/11/09 Kris Lawrence Anderson 5213 Eleanor Lane (29) phone: 763 -535 -8076 e -mail: 12/9/02- 12/9/06 Edward Nelson 5236 Great View Ave N (29) 763 -536 -8963 e -mail: 1/6/05-6/26/08 Gary Brown Secretary 2005 7012 Willow Lane N (30) 763 -560 -6338 e -mail: 6/25/04- 6/28/08 Roni M. Brunner Vice Chair 2005 4701 Twin Lake Ave N (29) 763 537 -5330 e -mail: rb200lbugs @hotmail.com 2/12/2001- 2/12/09 H. Bruce Lund 4502 58th Ave N, #301 (29) phone: 763 559 -2534 e -mail: 1/6/05- 7/20/07 Harold Middleton 5418 Oliver Ave N (30) 763 -549 -5594 e -mail: hjannifer @comcast.net 11/30/98- 4/20/09 Eileen Oslund 6000 Ewing Ave N (29) 763 -537 -2858 10/30/01 10/30/05 Richard T. Phillips 7200 Logan Ave N (30) 763 -561 -2367 e -mail: 12/9/02- 12/9/06 Richard C. Theis 3006 Thurber Road (29) 763 -561 -8738 e -mail: rtheis55429 @aol.com 2/12/2001- 2/12/09 5 vacancies Updated 02122106 City of Brooklyn Center A Millennium Community March 21, 2006 Mr. Stan Leino Charter Commission Chair 7118 France Avenue North Brooklyn Center, MN 55429 Dear Mr. Leino: Office of the City Manager Michael I McCauley City Manager At its March 13, 2006, meeting, the City Council directed me to place the Charter Commission recommendation on an upcoming work session agenda for discussion. I will place the Charter Commission recommendation on the April 10, 2006, City Council Study Session agenda from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. The City Council meets in Study Session in the City Hall Council Chambers beginning at 6:00 p.m. Enclosed is the correspondence that was prepared by City Attorney Charlie LeFevere in response to the Charter Commission recommendation. City Clerk Sharon Knutson has also e- mailed it to you for distribution to the Charter Commission members. Please extend the City Council's invitation to the Charter Commission to attend the Study/Work Session on April 10th. Thank you. Sincerel Michael I Mc City Manager Enclosure 6301 Shingle Creek Parkway Recreation and Community Center Phone TDD Number Brooklyn Center, MN 55430 -2199 (763) 569 -3400 City Hall TDD Number (763) 569 -3300 FAX (763) 569 -3434 FAX (763) 569 -3494 www.cityolbrooklyncenter.org 470 U.S. Bank Plaza 200 South Sixth Street Minneapolis, MN 55402 (612) 337 -9300 telephone Graven (612) 337 -9310 fax C H A R T E R E D http: /www.kennedy- graven.com CHARLES L. LEFEvERE Attorney at Law Direct Dial (612) 337 -9215 Email: clefevere @kennedy graven.com March 8, 2006 Ms. Sharon Knutson City Clerk City of Brooklyn Center 6301 Shingle Creek Parkway Brooklyn Center MN 55430 RE: Proposed Charter Amendment Dear Sharon: You have asked for my comments on several proposed changes to the City Charter. Two changes are proposed to Section 3.11 of the Charter. Under the current Charter, copies of the City's ordinances are to be made available to the public either free or at a reasonable charge. The first change is to delete the words "free or The deletion of the words "free or" would mean that the City must charge for all copies. The apparent intent of this amendment is to prevent the City Council and staff from providing copies of the ordinances and city code free, and requiring that a charge be imposed in all cases. I do not know what the purpose of this change is, but I see no legal problem with it. The second change to Section 3.11 is the addition of language that would require that all ordinances be published and maintained on the City's website. Technically, the "ordinances" are the initial acts of law passed by the City Council. These ordinances are then compiled and organized (codified) into a City Code. The individual ordinances are often of little value to the public because they may deal with only a single subdivision of the Code and may make little sense unless read in the context of the entire code. The code is currently maintained on the City's website while individual ordinances are not. I believe that it would be more helpful to maintain the City Code on the City's website. That may have been the intention of the Charter Commission; however the use of the term "all ordinances" suggests the intent was to require individual ordinances to be maintained on the website as well. If the intent of the Charter Commission was to require that the Code be maintained, rather than individual ordinances, I would recommend that the new sentence added at the end of Section 3.11 be amended to read "the City Code shall be published and maintained on the City's website." The proposed amendment also includes changes to Section 4.04 dealing with filing for elections. Currently, a person's name will be placed on the ballot upon payment of a five 281625v1 CLL BR291 -7 Knutson March 7, 2006 Page 2 of 3 dollar fee with the City Clerk. It is proposed that this language would be deleted and the following language would be added "Upon receiving a completed Minnesota Affidavit of Candidacy form and the payment of a filing fee of fifty dollars ($50) by a potential candidate or filing by the petition of fifty (50) registered voters on behalf of the candidate, the Clerk shall certify the eligibility of the candidate and place the name of the candidate on the election ballot without a partisan designation." This new language can be interpreted in two ways. One is that a candidate may be certified upon following one of two procedures. The first is filing of the Affidavit of Candidacy plus fifty dollars; and the second is the filing of a petition of fifty registered voters on behalf of the candidate. The second way this language can be interpreted is that a candidate may become qualified following two procedures. One would be the filing of an Affidavit of Candidacy plus fifty dollars; and the second would be the filing of the Affidavit of Candidacy plus a petition of fifty registered voters. Since State Law requires a Certificate of Candidacy, I assume that the latter interpretation was intended. To avoid any confusion on this matter, I would recommend that the word "either" be added and that the new language be amended to read: "Upon receiving a completed Minnesota Affidavit of Candidacy form and either the payment of a filing fee of fifty dollars ($50) by a potential candidate or a petition of fifty (50) registered voters on behalf of the candidate..." You also point out that the persons qualified to sign the petition are referred to simply "registered voters This raises the question whether a person who is a registered voter but is not qualified to vote for a Brooklyn Center candidate should be allowed to sign the petition. I assume the intent was that only registered voters who are authorized to vote for the candidate would be authorized to sign the petition. However, again, to avoid any question or confusion about this, I believe that your suggested language would be helpful. That is, rather than stating simply "registered voters specify "registered voters who are eligible to vote for the candidate in Brooklyn Center Finally, you may wish to consider adding language similar to other petition provisions of the Charter as follows: "In the case of a petition, all signatures need not be on one signature paper, but the circulator of every such paper shall make an affidavit that each signature appended to the paper is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. Each signature paper shall be in substantially the following form: CANDIDACY PETITION Proposing the candidacy of (stating the name of the proposed candidate) for the office of (stating the position mayor or council member). The candidacy of such persons is supported by the following voters who are registered and eligible to vote for the mayor or council members of Brooklyn Center: 281625v1 CLL BR291 -7 Knutson March 7, 2006 Page 3 of 3 1. 2. 3. Name ::re (at the end of the list of signature shall be appended the affidavit of the circulator mentioned above.)" Please let me know if you have any further questions. Very truly yours, Charles L. LeFevere CLL:rec 281625v1 CLL BR291 -7 Revision of Section 3.11 Section 3.11. CODIFICATION AND PUBLICATION OF ORDINANCES. The city shall codify and publish an ordinance code book, pamphlet or continuous reference loose leaf form. Copies shall be made available by the Council at the office of the City Clerk for general distribution to the public free of at a reasonable charge. All ordinances shall be published and maintained on the city's website. Revision of Section 4.04 Section 4.04. FILE BY AFFIDAVIT OR BYPETITION. U pen n ft filing f e e f fi deli.,,- s_($s) to t h e eler -k, Upon receiving a completed Minnesota Affidavit of Candidacv form and the payment of a filing fee of fifty dollars ($50) by a potential candidate or filing by the petition of fifty (50) registered voters on behalf of the candidate, the Clerk shall certify the eligibility of the candidate and place the name of the candidate upon the pr-im election ballot without partisan designation.