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City Council Study Session - 05/16/05 Minutes - Page 19 9. Twin Lakes 9.a "Discussion of Advisory Referendum for Twin Lakes" At the request of Councilmember Ihlan, City Attorney Jay Squires reviewed the legal opinion dated May 10, 2005, completed by his office, related to Advisory Elections; providing several Attorney General Opinions. Councilmember Ihlan requested additional information from City Attorney Squires, as noted in the footnote related to the County exception; and noted the AG opinions were quite old, one from 1961 and one from 1972. The City Attorney responded that, although there were no Minnesota cases or new Attorney General opinions on the subject, the subject was fully addressed and fully resolved in the opinions cited. Dick Houck, 1133 Roselawn Mr. Houck opined that there was a process to get a referendum on such an issue; citing a recent process in the City of Hugo; and questioned whether anyone on the City Council wanted a referendum on the proposed Twin Lakes project. Further discussion ensued between City Attorney Squires and Councilmember Ihlan related to the lack of opinions and/or legal cases in the State of Minnesota. Councilmember Ihlan suggested that the language of a ballot question could be worded as an attempt to gauge public interest, thus not creating a legal issue. Mayor Klausing noted past discussions when a Charter form of government was considered twice by the voters of the City, and rejected twice, and a feature of the proposed but rejected Charter was initiative and referendum power of the sort being discussed respecting a Twin Lakes referendum. He opined that it was bad public policy to take incredibly complex issues and reduce them to simple "yes or no" questions; thus the need for an elected body. Twin Lakes Advisory Referendum for Twin Lakes