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Roseville Charter Commission Roseviile City Hall Council Chambers Minutes of Meeting of June 21, 2040 I. Call to Order/Roll Call: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. Present: AlI mcmbers were present. II. Approval of Minutes: A1 Sands requested that the public comment section of the May l6, 2000 minutes show ihat four of the five speakers expressed support for the home rule charter. The txunutes then stood approved. II�. Jim Button, Woodbury Charter Commission Chair: Mr. Button recou�xted the experience of the Woodbu:ry Charter Comtxzission, which began its work at the begitu�ng of 1993 and was dissolved two years later without developing a charter. The process was very similar to ours. It included broadcasts of commission meetings, working with thc League of Minnesota Cities, arid efforts to involve the public in the discussion. Because of lack of input frorn citizens, the target date for reaching a decision on whether to develop a charter within a year was moved up and the commission votcd against it. Each commissioner was asked to write a position paper on his/her decision. These arc available from Marga.ret Driscoll at City Hall. Following this decision, the commission sent a suminary of its findings to the Woodbury City Council and held workshops with Council members about changes that could be made. N. Represeniatives from Fridley: Deb Skoen, City Clerk; Suzanne Wasren, Charter Commissio.n chair; and Char Fitzpatrick, Commissioner, carne to discuss the meeting topic — wards and odd-even year elections. Fridley's charter was cstablished in 1957 and has added 20 amcndmcnts since then. Fridley has twclve precincts divided into th�ree wards, with one council member elected from each ward and one council member at large. Voter turnout in 1998 was 78%. The turnout in a citizen-originated referendttt�a �ast year was 15%, Fridley has an active charter comrnission currently rewriting sections of the charter dealing with vacancies on the council and initiative ar�d referendum. An ongoing review is in prog:ress to make sure the charter conforms to state statutes. Sozne spending limits are more restrictive #han those allowed by the state. V. Representatives from Richf eld: Tom Ferber, city clerk and election administrator. Richfield's charter was adopted in i9b4 and their council structure is s�milar to Fridley's. Their voter tumout was b5-70% in even years and 10-30% in odd years. They have same caps for capital improvemcnt projects. Representative from both cities ageed on several points: their ward system does not result in parochialism; voter turnout is much greater in even-year elections; the cost of running elections was not much different for even or odd year elections, the greatest expense being for election judge salaries. VI. Public Comment: Three persons appeared to spcak to the commission. Joyce Engelbert, School Board election official %r the Roseville School District, Ms. Engelbert expressed sirong support for odd-year elections, citing the need for strong candidates for the school board. She maintained that their campaigns would be lost amid campaigns for national, state, judicza� and local elections in even-numbered years. Geor�eann.Hall commented on the need to consider holding special elections during general elections. John Kysylyczyn, Mayor of Roseville, discussed issues that could be addressed in a charter: campaign expenditures; consistency in city council minntes and the structure of council meetings, particularly in regard �o public comment. He cited, as the main reason for inconsistency is rule changes made whcn new officials aze elected.