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RELEVANT LINKS: • Public mistrust. The council could lose the trust of the people in the community. • Changes in law. Substantial violations may prompt the adoption of more restrictive legislation on city expenditures. Appendix A, Public Purpose A later section of this memo contains a checklist cities can use to make a Expenditure Chart. preliminary determination of whether specific expenditures qualify as a proper use of public funds. II. Common questions on public spending Common questions often arise from public officials regarding certain public expenditures. Please note this section does not represent an exhaustive list of all valid or invalid city expenditures. Many statutes limit the authority to spend money by certain types of cities. For example, some statutes give particular spending authority only to statutory cities or only to home rule charter cities. Minn. scat. § 410.01. Also, many statutes give authority for certain expenditures only to cities of a certain class. Population determines a city's class and are classified as follows: • First class cities. A first class city has a population over 100,000. (Cities do not generally lose first class status if their population drops below 100,000, unless the population drops more than a certain amount). • Second class cities. A second class city has a population over 20,000, but not more than 100,000. • Third class cities. A third class city has a population over 10,000, but not more than 20,000. • Fourth class cities. A fourth class city has a population that is 10,000 or less. The analyses of the expenditures in this section primarily apply to Minn stat. § 410.33. statutory cities since home rule charter cities may have additional authority for expenditures in their city charters. Home rule charter cities should check their charters for more details. Home rule charter cities rely upon the general law that applies to statutory cities as authority for an expenditure only when the following conditions exist: • The city's charter is silent on the particular matter. • No general law exists that prohibits a charter city from making the expenditure. • No general law exists that expressly states a city's charter must prevail over general law on the particular matter. League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 7/18/2016 Public Purpose Expenditures Page 3