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HomeMy WebLinkAbout19860213 Charter MinutesCHARTER COMMISSIOTd MINUTES February 133 1986 _ The meeting was called to order lay the Chairperson C. Caturia at 7:38 in ;he City Couneil Chambers. Those in attendance were: M. Hovgaard, J. McGree, J. Gilbert, C. Caturia, S. .vent, D. Dobriek, W. Hartman, F. Beltz and J. Johnson. absent: Marie Bolden. Public: D. Platte, L, Stoffel, P. Tritz - League of MN Municipalities D. Dobrick moved to accept the Jan. 13 minutes with S. Fluent seconding, The motion wa.s passed and carried. C. Caturia introduced P. Tritz who came to speak to us. P. Tritz passed out a packet of information regarding the City Administrators and City Managers of various cities and spoke on the issue. of the advant- ages and disadvantages. This packed contained sections of Charters from cities in T=~N. The duties of the C.A. or C. Mgr. should be defined and this involves 3-~ questions: 1. GVhat authority to make purchases and contracts? 2. What authority to supervise other city employees? 3. What power will he have to hire and fire employees? ' ~. What authority regarding city budgets? Tritz -- the definition of a CA doesn't tell you what power and duties he has. Manager has independent discretionary authority. Some CAs have a lot ~f authority and some have pavers that are very restrictive. A classic CA is Lakeville. Jordan is similar to Lakeville with the exception of making certain small purchases. Any discretionary powers come back to the City Council. Winona - pure classical i'orm of CMgr. type of government. Council is for- bidden to hire and fire ar even give orders. City Council rnust deal through the CMgr. The CMgr. is appointed by the council and can be given the boot by the City Couneil. Morr~.s is similar to Winona -® can hire and fire and city employee but a dept, head (specified in Charter) police and fire chief :~s to the approval of the Council. `phis pulls back from complete control of hirii~g~ and firing city employees. Northfield and WBL are similar. The mayor is responsible for the city's administration by Charter. The CH reports to the mayore '~dBL mayor hires with the approval of the City Council. Northfield is one of the few cities in MN with a strong mayor farm of govt. The Cg in Northfield is very restricted and his duties are spelled out completely in a supplemental ordinance. He can only hire and fire subject to the mayor's review. P. Tritz -- look at what kind of powers you want for your CA or CMgr. because different Charters give different thought on the matter. P. Tritz -- referred to the Charters of Blaine and Columbia Hts. on how the police dept is handled in those cities. - Page 2 ~- Columbia Hts. -- the mayor shall have the appointment, control and direction of all police officers of the City. Blaine -- CMgr. has control over all depts. and heads with the exception of the Police Chief. P. Tritz --- called to the Commission's attention of the problems in Austin. The mayor has authority over -the PD and is a striking P-9 member and where does his responsibility lay -~- is there a possible conflict o~ interest. Assigning the PD to the Ca or CMgr. takes away the power of the voters to remove the mayor if the voters find the PD is not up to their expectations. W. Hartman -- It seems that the Austin Police Chief has not been responsive to the mayor's wishes. P. Tritz --true in practice it wasn't handled in the usual way. Mayor is in a difficult position. Mayor has recogni2ed the conflict and has not pushed the issue. W. Hartman -- trouble begins when it is not spelled out clearly the duties of the Mayor and CA or CMgr. Someone must have the last word. D. Plath -- mayor gave up the right because he went to the sheriff and asked for assistance. Proceeduxe -- police chief, sheriff then govenor. Fairbult - adopted in '73- created position of CA which is very close to a classical CMgr. The original portion -- hire and direct all city department heads subject to the City Council --- similar to City Mgr. Fairbult -- CA has the power to suspend and discharge employees are subject to the City Council approval. The CA can remove city employees but all dept. heads must be subjected to the City Council. This can cause conflict because dept. heads would have not to take full direction from the CA. If there was conflict with the CA, regarding a firing they could appear before the Council and if they had the votes could keep their job. W. Hartman -- how did this come about? P. Tritz -- doesn't know specifically but thought some interesting politics occured at that time. Saw it as a power struggle. W. Hartman P- what help was available to draft ammendments from the League? P. Tritz -- 1. Draft someone else's Charter 2. Research dept is available to poke through charters on what ideas you want to explore. 3. !the league's attorney will look over charter drafts check on what the implications are on this type of change or are there any inherent 'gla.tches' terms left undefined ox contradictory. W. Hartman -- would the League's attorney sit in hear what we say and draft what we want? P. Tritz -- League will review after the Commission does the drafting. P. Tritz --- can make provisions in the Charter on entirely how much authority the council can delegate to the CA. - Page 3 - W. Hartman -- far for me to assume if we want to move in Hastings from a CA to a City Manager form of govt. P, Tritz -- Charter provisions show entirely how much authority the Council can delegate to the CA, Charter provisions are spelled out by ordinance, Nat sure how far the Council can go . Rule of law -- whether these kinds of powers pan be delegated by the City Counca.l, Discretionary power -- general rule that duties cannot be re- delegated. Current provisions authorizes the Council true discretionary duti e s to the CA Tn a.mmending the Charter spell out the duties and powers of the CA -- spell out explicitly -- the City Council can. give those duties. D. Plat -- spoke to the issue of placing the PD under the C~. Police Chief stated he felt the dept should be under the control off' an elected official. The CA could be influenced by the City Council. because they can hire and fire the CA, Z, 5toffel supported the D. Plath's statemex~t, Janice Johnson. -- describe discretionary powers. F. Tritz ~. excerise judgement 2, interview six people decide who to hire 3, picking an architect far a new city hall $, decide whether or not to reconstruct l~iain St, and how much of mill levy to make. Administrial form -- rule bound in excerising judgement -- pre-established rules of procedure on how he will act in a particular situation. W, Hartman -- administrial function is of established policy? P, Tritz -~ yes. J. N'~eGree 4- how many cities have recall.? Tritz -- 1o'~ home city charter about 65-70 provides for initiative refrendum -- 5D have recall.. Tritz --~ reca~.l_ not easily used in MId. S~~N constitution permits removal only by malfeasance. 1859 Supreme Court decision stated recall cannot be used for polictical rEasans. Recall very rarely used it was done 7 ar 8 years ago in Duluth to remove someone from the City Council. C, Caturia suggested reviewing information from P. Tritz to see what duties we want for a CA or do we want a Cr~igr, form of govt, J. Johnson suggested forming a sub-committee to review the Charters presented and make a recommendation at the next meeting. C, Caturia --- re-evaluate what we did at the last meeting -- determine what is practically possible, Then what one we determine "do-able" -- submit our ides to a.n attorney and draft the proposals anal then we would submit them to the Council. G17. Hartman -- we should take care of housekeeping items, conflict of CA duties a.nd mayor -- these things must be resolved. W. Hartman would like an attorney present to hear our ideas and to gell what we .want. C, Caturia -- the Commission has a pretty good handle on what we want to carry out. Commission has a budget limit of ~5oa - page ¢ - far expenses if we should need more we must ga to the Council.. ~. Caturia -- items for next meetings 1. housekeeping items 2. committee report 3, decide what to give atty. 4. present to Council in l~Iay D. Dobrick -- according to a previous 1984 calendar an special election for changes must be done by June 13. So those filing fay Council posita.ons w:c~uld know where they stood. Time will be needed to "sell" the changes. J. Johnson if there is a shortage of time to get everything accomplished we should double up meetings. Sub-committee to review C.~. information: D. Dobrick, W. Hartman and J. Johnson. C. Caturia -- must give cl.ty 45 days notice for special elections. C, Caturia will discuss with GEBrawn an possible attorneys. Meetings --- March b and March 20. Judy Gilbert -- felt negative on some of the motions especially #9. C, Caturia -- we will be able to re-evaluate motions passed at the last meeting, J. Johnson -- to rescind any motion voted on can only be done by those that voted on it the first time. E. Beltz moved for adjournment with Judy Gilbert seconding at x:26, ana.ce J. Johnson, Sec re Lary