2000_0621_packet_Charter Comm - Laserfiche WebLink

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:~- Roseville Charter Commission Roseville City Hall Council Chambers Minutes of Meeting of June 21, 2000 I. Call to Order/Roll Call: The meeting. was called to order at 7:00 p.m. Present: All members were present. II. Approval of Minutes: Al Sands requested that the public comment section of the May 16, 2000 minutes show that four of the five speakers expressed support for the home rule charter. The minutes then stood approved. III. Jim Button, Woodbury Charter Commission Chair: Mr. Button recounted the experience of the Woodbury Charter Commission, which began its work at the beginning of 1993 and was dissolved two years later without developing a charter. The process was very similaz to ours. It included broadcasts of commission meetings, working with the League of Minnesota Cities, and efforts to involve the public in the discussion. Because of lack of input from citizens, the target date for reaching a decision on whether to develop a charter within a year was moved up and the commission voted against it. Each commissioner was asked to write a position paper on his/her decision. These are available from Margaret Driscoll at City Hall. Following this decision, the commission sent a summary of its findings to the Woodbury City Council and held workshops with Council members about changes that could be made. IV. Representatives from Fridley: Deb Skoen, City Clerk; Suzanne Warren, Charter Commission chair; and Char Fitzpatrick, Commissioner, came to discuss the meeting topic -wards and odd-even year elections: Fridley's charter was established in 1957 and has added 20 amendments since then. Fridley has twelve precincts divided into three wards, with one council member elected from each ward and one council member at large. Voter turnout in 1998 was 78%. The turnout in acitizen-originated referendum last year was 15%. Fridley has an active charter commission currently rewriting sections of the charter dealing with vacancies on the council and initiative and referendum. An ongoing review is in progress to make sure the charter conforms to state statutes. Some spending limits are more restrictive than those allowed by the state. V. Representative from Richfield: Tom Ferber, city clerk and election administrator. Richfield's charter was adopted in 1964 and their council structure is similar to Fridley's. Their voter turnout was 65-70% in even years and 10-30% in odd years. They have some caps for capital improvement projects. Representative from both cities agreed 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 speak to the commission. Joyce Engelbert, School Board election official for the Roseville School District, Ms. Engelbert expressed strong 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, judicial and local elections in even-numbered years. Georgeann 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 minutes and the structure of council meetings, particularly in regard to public comment. He cited, as the main reason for inconsistency is rule changes made when new officials are elected.