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Jac rewer -Home Rue arter '~ ~~ _ ~~°~ _~~" ~~~ Page 1 • From: Michele Timmons <michele.timmons@revisor.leg.state.mn.us> To: BRIGGS.STP(BREJAC) Date: Mon, Aug 21, 2000 11:28 AM Subject: Home Rule Charter Thanks again for having me as a speaker last week in Roseville. After listening to the discussion which followed my presentation, I thought I could add some information about the government structure discussions the county had. One key objective of the Ramsey County Home rule Charter Commission was to require professional management for the county, and to encourage the County Board to make policy-level decisions. The law required the county to have a "CQ~!P.b~ C~ordlnatCr", N~hiCh \~!?S quite 2 :".'e^~k administrative role. The Ramsey County Board had decided to have an "Executive Director", and had delegated many administrative matters to that position. The County Board could have voted not to have that position, and the County Board had the power to hire and fire department heads. The Charter requires a "County Manager", so the board no longer has the power to eliminate professional management. In fashioning what powers this County Manager would have, the Charter Commission looked to the City Manager form of government as a model. The County Manager was • given the power to hire and fire department heads, but with a grandparent clause for existing department heads so the County Board would still have a direct role if any were to be fired. The County Manager position is an at-will position, and the Charter clarified that an employment contract could be utilized for that position. There are several other Charter requirements that focus the County Board's direction towards policy-level decision-making. These include: 1. Strategic Plan requirement -The Charter Commission wanted the county board to do long-term. planning, and so required this plan. The county undertook a major effort to establish a strategic plan, and a plan was written by 1998. 2. r, fve-year capital budget -The Chartar-Commissicn ~..a; ~ted tc require the county board to do long-range planning for capital expenditures, and so wrote this requirement into the Charter. 3. Administrative Code -The Charter Commission wanted the county board to take years of ongoing resolutions that were difficult to find and compile them into a document that would be comprehensive, updated on a regular basis and indexed. Jack, feel free to print these additional comments and add them to the record of the Roseville Charter Commission if you wish to do so. Michele L. Timmons, Revisor Office of the Revisor of Statutes • Phone: (651) 296-2778 Fax: (651) 296-0569