Loading...
CHM 05/23/2005 - 00027093CITY OF FRIDLEY CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING MAY 23, 2005 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Jorgenson called the Charter Commission meeting to order at7:04 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Peter Borman, Gary Braam, Don Findell, Craig Gordon, Carol Hoiby, Nancy Jorgenson, Kathleen Linder, Pam Reynolds, Cindy Soule and Francis Van Dan Members Absent: Char Fitzpatrick, Anita Gerrity, Bill Holm, Janet Johnson Others Present: Deb Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Commissioner Gordon MOVED and Commissioner Soule seconded a motion to approve the agenda. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON JORGENSON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. APPROVAL OF APRIL 25, 2005, CHARTER COMMISSION MINUTES: Commissioner Gordon MOVED and Commissioner Reynolds seconded a motion to approve the April 25, 2005, Charter Commission Minutes. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON JORGENSON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 1. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Commissioners Jorgenson, Van Dan, Gordon, Hoiby, Findell, Reynolds, and Soule accepted the appointment to the Charter Commission by citing and signing the Oath of Office. Deb Skogen stated there are 14 members to the Commission with one vacancy due to the termination of Commissioner Monden. Ms Skogen stated that Commissioner Fitzpatrick had called to say she wanted to resign due to the continual problems with a knee replacement and amputation of her leg. Ms. Skogen told her she could go through therapy and come back in the fall. 2. ADOPTION OF MISSION STATEMENT Commissioner Soule noted the biggest discussion item was on the word "has" in the very first sentence and that other words like should, shall, may or must we also considered. Commissioner Van Dan said Commissioner Soule led a very pleasant discussion and felt the Commission was making tremendous headway. ADOPTED JULY 18, 2005 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 23, 2005 PAGE 2 Chairperson Jorgenson explained a lot of members needed to know what their charge was and to be able to communicate that charge to other citizens as well. Commissioner Hoiby said that most people did not know or understand what the charter was, even from before when she served on the Commission in the past. Commissioner Reynolds said she had done a search on the web site to see what other cities had and read a brief paragraph from the Minneapolis web site. Commissioner Van Dan said few people know, but should be able to correlate the charter and local government with the Constitution and the US Government with the people serving as the executive branch, the city council as the legislative branch and the Charter Commission as the courts. Commissioner Jorgenson said there is a whole issue of getting people involved in local elections, especially due to the drop off rate that was experienced at the last general election. Commissioner Findell felt the word "has" was bossy and he liked part of the description that was used for Minneapolis. Commissioner Hoiby said she did not like the word has and recommended removing "has to" from the sentence. Commissioner Van Dan read an article from the May 10, 2005, Minneapolis Star Tribune regarding an issue of connecting water and sewer in Ramsey and what the citizens have done. Commissioner Reynolds said she like language similar to Minneapolis that the charter defines the powers the citizens agree to give the city government and how the government is to be structured. Don Findell recommending changing the first sentence from "The Fridley home rule charter is the fundamental law by which city government has to operate." To "The Fridley home rule charter is the fundamental law which defines the powers the citizens agree to give their city government." Chairperson Jorgenson wondered if the mission statement was something they could agree on now or whether the commission needed more time to work on it. Commissioner Reynolds MOVED and Commissioner Findell seconded a motion to adopt the mission statement with the above change made by Commissioner Findell as follows: The Fridley home rule charter is the fundamental law which defines the powers the citizens agree to give their city government. The Charter Commission is comprised of court appointed citizens under Minnesota state law. The Commission, in response to the needs of the community or state legislature, discusses and refines the charter. Changes to the charter can also be initiated by the citizens. HEARING NO FURTHER DISCUSSION AND UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON JORGENSON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3. ITEMS FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION Commissioner Borman said the commissioner survey results overwhelmingly agreed a change is needed to the charter to remove utility fees in Chapter 7 to allow the city to pass on the rate charge from the Metropolitan Council for sanitary sewer and to charge the rate needed to provide the service for water. He explained there was a ADOPTED JULY 18, 2005 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 23, 2005 PAGE 3 lot of discussion as to when to place the item on the ballot, this year or next year and wondered how the other commissioners felt. Ms. Skogen explained there were four ways to amend the charter, 1) the Commission could recommend an amendment by sending it to the city council to send on to the voters; 2) an initiative petition could be circulated by 5% of the voters; 3) the city council could recommend an amendment to the charter commission who has 60 days to review, and if necessary an additional 90 days to accept or reject the proposed amendment and send it back to the city council to place on the agenda; or the charter commission could recommend amending the charter by ordinance and sending the ordinance to the city council for their adoption. Commissioner Borman said it was the wording of the ballot that was so cumbersome and there was very little voter education on the issue. Commissioner Gordon said that the Finance Director had said the city was losing $350,000 in the water and sewer funds. Chairperson Jorgenson said that there was also $2.3 million in reserves to be considered. She said it should be fixed but was concerned about whether to place it on the ballot this fall for a special election, especially since most people that come out will be coming out to vote for school district issues or candidates. Commissioner Borman said if he had a business that was losing $350,000 a year he would want to fix it. Commissioner Van Dan said that the water charge was not a fee but it was a commodity or a price for a service the city provided. Commissioner Reynolds said Chapter 11 referred to it as a rate charge, as well as other cities Commissioner Soule thought Chapter 7.3.13. removed utilities from fees because it talked about services or materials routinely provided by the city to its citizens and that Minnesota state law does not allow a city to charge more for the service than the actual cost of providing the service. Chairperson Jorgenson said if anything is done with fees, it has to go before the voters in an election. She said she did not mind putting it forward again from the Charter Commission, but felt it should wait until the general election in 2006. She felt it was important to discuss it with the City Council to see what they would like to do and when it should be put before the electorate. Commissioner Van Dan thought it would also be good to collaborate with the City Council to change the charter to help make it a smoother operation. It was suggested and agreed a letter be written to the City Council seeking their advice, concerns or direction on how they wish to proceed and to be able to provide information for the September meeting, as well as possibly scheduling a joint meeting of the Commission and Council to discuss how to amend the charter. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Gordon MOVED and Commissioner Van Dan seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON JORGENSON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:15 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Debra A. Skogen, ADOPTED JULY 18, 2005 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 23, 2005 City Clerk/Staff Liaison Kathleen Linder, Secretar ADOPTED JULY 18, 2005 PAGE 4