Brooklyn Park Charter Commission Special Meeting Minutes Monday, January 8, 2018, 7:00 p.m. Brooklyn Township Conference Room 1. Call to Order/Roll Call Chair Scott Simmons called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present were: Gordy Aune, Jr., Mary Ann Bishman, Nausheena Hussain, John Irvin, Dennis Secara, Scott Simmons, Jason Smalley, Ann Uhde, David Williams. Absent: Commissioners John Hultquist (excused) and Heidi Ritchie (excused) Chair Simmons stated that if they saw people going to the Lampi Room that it meant the Council Members were going to the Lampi Room for their Work Session. He stated the Charter Commissioners would recess to attend the discussion on the Park Bond and would return if they still had items on the agenda or adjourn in the Lampi Room when the Council meeting was done. 2. Additions/Approval of the Agenda Chair Simmons stated he had one addition to the agenda. Item 5.2 Chapter 9, CLIC. He stated there was a wording question brought up by Staff Liaison Montero. Motion Commissioner Aune, Seconded by Commissioner Irvin to approve the agenda as amended, adding Item 5.2 Chapter 9, CLIC. The motion carried unanimously. 3. Approval of Minutes 3.1 December 13, 2017 Chair Simmons provided minor corrections to the minutes. Motion Commissioner Aune, Jr., Seconded by Commissioner Uhde to approve the December 13, 2017 minutes as amended. The motion carried unanimously. 4. Unfinished Business 5. Reports of Officers, Boards, and Standing Committees 5.1 Treasurer s Report Treasurer Bishman stated no expenses were accrued for the Charter Commission for calendar 1
year 2017. Motion Commissioner Aune, Jr., seconded by Commissioner Irvin to approve the Treasurer s Report. The motion carried unanimously. 5.2 Chapter 9, Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee (CLIC). Chair Simmons asked the Commissioners to look at the 2017 Annual Report on Page 5, regarding the Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee. He stated that tonight on the Council s agenda was setting the date for the public hearing and first reading of the ordinance changing the name of the CLIC from Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee to Community Long-range Improvement Commission. He stated Staff Liaison Montero brought up one more item to consider, under C. Duties. He stated the sentence, Commission study shall not be limited to proposed improvements, but shall exercise investigative functions, soliciting and taking inventory of community needs as necessary to perform and the duties whereby citizen-initiated requests He stated the question was whether citizen was an inadvertent omission to changing the word citizen to community. Commissioner Aune, Jr., thought the reason why it was citizen was not everyone made or exercised an opinion and didn t have to be on the Commission. He stated they could be a citizen at large and what he thought the sentenced referred to. Chair Simmons stated the reason why it was brought to the Charter Commission s attention was that the word citizen implied the person involved with the Commission or associated with the Commission were legal citizens by definition of law versus community members which may or may not be citizens as defined by federal law. He stated the change would be in conformity with the other changes. Commissioner Uhde suggested individual-initiated because it was not a small group but a single person. Chair Simmons stated they may or may not be community initiated and could be something broader than community and asked if individual would encompass that. Commissioner Irvin suggested area residents or local residents. Chair Simmons suggested city resident initiated. He suggested changing it to community or individual which would be a person because it was not necessarily an initiated request that came from the community at large but came from people and individuals. Commissioner Williams thought the CLIC members wanted to meet one more time and discuss It. He stated they hadn t made a recommendation that they wanted to change anything. Chair Simmons stated they met on December 8 and there was an email attachment from the CLIC Chair where they accepted the change. He stated the reason they initially opposed the 2
change was that as long as it stayed in the Charter why change the name. He stated the Charter Commission trumped what they did and at last month s meeting the Charter Commissioners did recommend changing the name. Commissioners Uhde stated that citizen initiated was not necessarily an individual. She stated it could be an individual or could be a group and community could be an individual or group also. She thought Community would be consistent and it made sense and thought individual was limiting and community was a better choice. Chair Simmons stated that anyway they went on it didn t think it would limit the ability to provide input and did it for consistency. Motion Chair Simmons, seconded by Commissioner Aune, Jr., to strike the word citizen and insert the word community, under Section 9.04, C. Duties, to read as follows: Commission study shall not be limited to proposed improvements, but shall exercise investigative functions, soliciting and taking inventory of community needs as necessary to perform and the duties where by citizen community-initiated request for improvements are heard and considered. The motion carried unanimously. 6. New Business 6.1 Review of By-Laws Chair Simmons asked the Commissioners if there were any recommended changes to the Bylaws. Commissioner Aune, Jr., stated that under 8a, Reporting Requirements, said, The Commission s Chair shall prepare an annual report He suggested draft annual report. Chair Simmons asked if it said later on in the By-laws that the Commission had to approve the report. He stated they did approve it and had been the practice by the Charter Commission and didn t say the Commission approved the report. He suggested, prepare a draft annual report and present it to the Commission at its first meeting in January for approval by the Commission. He stated he had two other items to consider to the By-laws: On Page 3, Under Item 12, Officer Vacancy, there was a hyphen missing to words two year and should be two-year. On Page 1, Under Item 6, Statutory Meetings, last annual municipal election and it should be last General municipal election. He stated the City of Brooklyn Park did not have annual elections and had bi-annual elections. 3
Motion Commissioner Aune, Jr., Seconded by Commissioner Irvin, to amend Items 6, 8a and 12 and approve the By-Laws. The motion carried unanimously. 6.2 Review of Meeting Schedule Chair Simmons stated the dates looked good and there were no conflicts or holidays. He stated he would be gone on March 14 which was the Anoka Hennepin School District spring break that week. Commissioner Aune, Jr. asked if they were not meeting in June, July and August. Chair Simmons stated he didn t want to approach that issue yet unless there was a motion and consensus to do it. He stated he would like to wait until April to see what the workload was. He stated the Commission could just accept the dates and a motion was not needed because the Commission was scheduled to meet on those dates in the Charter. 6.3 Review of Draft 2017 Annual Report Chair Simmons stated he reviewed the report for grammatical errors and would give his corrections to Staff Liaison Montero. He stated that on substantive issues didn t see anything on his first reading of the report. Commissioner Aune, Jr. stated that on Page 1, under Charter Action Items in 2017, April 12, 2017, the last sentence. He asked if it needed to state The motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Uhde suggested, it to read, A motion was made to recommend no changes to the Districts on the amended population report using the additional data at this time, but to wait until after the next Census to revisit the issue. The motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Aune, Jr., stated on Page 2, February 6, 2017, suggested adding Chapter 2 to the sentence for consistency. He stated some sentences had chapter and other sentences did not. Chair Simmons stated chapter should be stricken because it was implied when it said 2.06 that it meant Chapter 2, Section 06. He stated it could be cleaned up by omitting Chapter and just revert to Section or could add Chapter to everything. He stated that unless it was a section of the code, thought it was implied and assumed it was the Charter and if it was a code, to say city code. It was the consensus of the Commissioners to use Section and omit Chapter and also remove Charter. Commissioner Uhde suggested rewording the last sentence to the April 12, 2017 entry to: 4
A motion was made to recommend no changes to the Districts on the amended population report using the additional data at this time, but to wait until after the next Census to revisit the issue. The motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Aune, Jr. stated on Page 2, March 27, suggested adding the word was before unanimously. He stated that on Page 3, February 6, 2017, suggested capitalizing city council. Chair Simmons stated that on November 13, 2017, there were two council words that needed to be capitalized. Commissioner Aune, Jr. stated on Page 4, said In May, In June and everything else was on a specific day in 2017 throughout the report. Chair Simmons stated those were City Council actions and asked if the dates should be added. He also wanted to add to the May sentence, In May a Commissions Improvement Committee was formed by the City Council to be clear that the Council was the one that created the Committee and not the Charter Commission. He asked if they wanted the date the Council took the action. Commissioner Aune, Jr. stated it would be consistent with the report. He stated that the entry on Page 4, December 11, also had some capitalizations that were needed to council and city manager and the addition of 2017 to be consistent. He stated that on Page 4, the December 13, 2017 entry, the second sentence, should read, A motion was made and approved the name change from Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee Chair Simmons stated that on the last line to Page 4, the last sentence should read, the Commissioners felt the language was discretionary by the Mayor Commission Aune, Jr., stated on Page 7, In September, city attorney, city charter should be capitalized and should add hyphenations to part time and full time. Commissioner Aune, Jr. stated on Page 8, Under Other, In February, asked if it needed to have when Commissioner Aufderhar resigned. Chair Simmons stated they did talk about when they were appointed and asked if it needed when a Commissioner resigned. He didn t recall the past annual reports having the resignations and could add it. Commissioner Hussain stated on Page 4, the December 13, 2017 entry, the second sentence still didn t make sense to her, A motion was made and approved the name change should be A motion was made and approved to change the name 5
Chair Simmons agreed and suggested A motion was made and approved to change the name from Motion Commissioner Aune, Jr., Seconded by Commissioner Uhde, to approve the draft annual 2017 report presented as corrected and amended. The motion carried unanimously. 6.4 Review of Work Plan Chair Simmons stated that according to the Work Plan, the February meeting would have a presentation on the experience of the Minneapolis 2017 election using Ranked Choice Voting. Commissioner Williams asked if the City of St. Paul could be invited since the Commissioners were getting a presentation on Ranked Choice Voting. Chair Simmons asked if the St. Paul elections had offices where they had to be drilled down on Ranked Choice to find out an outcome. He thought that was why it was the rationale not to invite St. Paul was because they all achieved the majority on the first vote. Commissioner Williams stated that other than the elections there might be some benefit to listening to the roll out and campaigns and the carry out of the elections by the city staff. Chair Simmons stated they wanted to make sure to use the meeting not as an advocacy forum but as a discussion item and educational opportunity to hear their experiences since they had a few offices that had to be drilled down and going through it for the third time. Commissioners Williams stated there was a lot of experiences behind the actual vote that might be educational to hear about whether it made sense in Brooklyn Park or not. Commissioner Irvin asked if they were trying to solve a particular problem with Ranked Choice Voting or just looking at it as a possibility. Chair Simmons stated the Commission had a long history of understanding the issue. He stated he didn t know if they were solving a problem and would have to define what that might be. He stated they had several meetings and invited several people on Ranked Choice Voting. He stated that on the St. Paul perspective, the administrators didn t really have to administer anything new. He stated it would be the candidate s perspective on how they formulated a campaign strategy under those circumstances. Commissioner Williams stated he was thinking more on the administrative side of it and that was the first step. He stated the Commission s responsibility was to find out if it benefitted Brooklyn Park, was it something they wanted to think about to do, how did they implement it and what were the legal implications to it. He stated that how a campaign ran under RCV probably was not under the Commission s purview. 6
Chair Simmons stated his understanding and recollection of St. Paul, was when the ballots were processed the first time, every candidate for every office achieved the majority so they didn t have to use RCV to get an outcome so there were no administrative issues. Commissioner Williams stated in the correspondence they received, talked about different ballots needed to be done and whether it could be done. He thought there were many differences in the administration of the RCV system rather than what the city had now. He stated that was what he would be interested in how it was working out and how that might or might not apply in Brooklyn Park. He stated that the whole process of how candidates campaigned was another strategy and didn t think that was part of the Charter Commission s purview. Chair Simmons asked if everyone got the memo that was presented to the Chair of the Minneapolis Charter Commission. He stated it was lengthy, was not complete and was not decisive on all those issues but touched on all the issues. He stated that Minneapolis and St. Paul had odd year elections. He stated it was important to read because it focused on some of the issues that would happen in an even year election which was what the Minneapolis Charter Commission wanted to do. He stated the genesis of the memo was that the Minneapolis Charter Commission wanted to switch from odd year to even year elections and asked the Assistant City Attorney. He stated the memo had so many citations and was very informative. He stated it was a definite read if they were going to go down that path again. He stated it was mandatory reading for every Commissioner. He stated he didn t want to revisit all the things from last time and they had a policy discussion and didn t get into the mechanics and the technical issues of doing it. He stated if they did it again they would have to get into the mechanics of doing it. He stated that memo laid out some of the road blocks and pitfalls not that they were all insurmountable but did address those issues. He asked the Commissioners to read it before next month and would be good questions to ask the City Clerk of Minneapolis. He stated if there were no objections and was the consent of the Commissioners they would have the presentation at the February meeting as stated in the Work Plan. 6.5 Park Bond Presentation Chair Simmons stated the Council was still in the chambers and the Commissioners had done their work. He stated they could recess to the chambers unless there were objections and when the City Council meeting was over it would be the adjournment time for the Commission and didn t need to reconvene. He stated that Recreation and Parks Director Yungers allowed an opportunity for the Commissions to ask questions after the Council Work Session. He stated the Budget Advisory and Recreation and Parks Advisory Commissioners would be present too. He stated the opportunity would be after the Council Work Session when the Charter Commission would adjourn and how it was set up tonight instead of Wednesday. 7
He stated he didn t know if the full Commissions would be there. He stated the Charter Commissioners could recess and go to the Lampi Room since they were done with their business. He stated he didn t know what the logistics were and didn t know if they were coming back to the Brooklyn Township Room. He stated they would adjourn whenever the Council was done asking questions. He stated the Commissioners were welcomed to stay or not stay or whatever they could accommodate. At 7:55 p.m. Chair Simmons called for a recess until the park bond presentation to the Council was held in the Lampi Room. 7. Correspondence/Communications Commission Secara stated if the Commissioners were not planning to attend the park bond presentation, there was a link on the city s web page under Recreation and Parks, where they could leave comments. He stated the web page also had the documents and the four different funding models that would be covered tonight. Chair Simmons stated the Council wouldn t take action other than the city asking the Trust for Public Land to do a survey to the community and might move forward with one of the scenarios or might allow the surveying to see what the temperament was for each scenario. He stated they would learn that tonight. He stated the documents provided to the Commissioners had information about financing, bonding and different scenarios and the voter requirement of bonding. 8. Adjournment Motion Commissioner Aune, Jr., and seconded by Commissioner Secara to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Devin Montero, Staff Liaison 8