[Mpls] Charter Commission: What will the Strib and the Legislature think?

[Jim Bernstein]

WOW!  I am truly flattered Vicki that you have retained so much of what
I have written!! And thank you for including some of my most strongly
worded comments in opposition to the Bush Administration and the current
state of the republican party - I guess in your heart you knew I was
right and wanted to remind List Members!   

As to the fate of the Charter Commission's 22 month effort to revise and
simplify the current Minneapolis City Charter, it is NOT "going badly"
as Council Member Zerby may have suggested. 

The Charter Commission has hit a roadblock and it is the City Council
itself.  The whole revision process has been driven by a desire to get
the mandatory 13-0 by the City Council to adopt a new, simplified,
cleaner City Charter. 

The very process of simplifying and "cleaning up" conflicting and/or
confusing language as well as updating the Minneapolis Charter requires
that some specific items in the Charter would have to be enacted as
ordinances (or not enacted as the City Council saw fit.) After six
complete drafts and a Herculean effort to accommodate virtually every
interested city agency, board, commission, council member and citizen
group we have been told by several council members that they would
either "definitely not" or "probably not" support a simplified charter.
Their argument is that changing an item from charter based to ordinance
based constitutes a "substantial change". Others indicated that unless
the City Coordinator, City Attorney, other city departments or agencies,
the Park & Recreation Board, the Library Board, other city commissions
were fully on board, then they probably could not support this final
draft. 
 
If not for the stated opposition of some council members, the City
Council would have received a final draft in March or April for their
consideration and a 13-0 vote.

Frankly, most Charter Commissioners preferred one of the earlier drafts.
The most recent draft was done to accommodate still more requests for
changes.  Even then we concluded, no draft was going to satisfy every
interested party so we simply decided to slow the process. 

FYI for List Members, if the City Council does not adopt a Charter
Commission proposal unanimously, it fails.  The Charter Commission then
has the ability to bring the question to the voters.  That is still the
plan if a 13-0 vote can be achieved but the Charter Commission voted a
week ago to not bring this simplified version to the voters in the
November 2005 election.

We were alerted a week ago that the City Council would like the Charter
Commission to hold public meetings to gauge the interest of citizens in
a broader re-write of the Minneapolis City Charter and to determine what
citizens might want in this re-write. This will definitely not be a
"non-controversial" draft as the earlier one was intended!  There are
strong opinions in our community about the size of the City Council, the
governance (weak mayor/strong mayor/city manager/commissioner) the
powers of the City Council and Mayor, the role of the independent Boards
especially the Library and the Park & Rec Boards, election process, and
other issues.  

Stay tuned for dates for the public meetings.  I suspect that a few of
the List Members may have something to say about these issues!

Jim Bernstein
Fulton
Chair, Minneapolis Charter Commission

-----Original Message-----
From: mpls-bounces at mnforum.org [mailto:mpls-bounces at mnforum.org] On
Behalf Of Victoria Heller
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 7:13 PM
To: Mpls Forum
Subject: [Mpls] Charter Commission: What will the Strib and the
Legislaturethink?

Listmember Jim Bernstein is also the Chair of the City's Charter
Commission....and a candidate for the City Council!

>From Mr. Bernstein's posts:

"My conclusion:  the dumbing down of America and more people voting
republican is not a coincidence!" 5/13/04

"Why [not park near a Bush sign]?  Fear of being attacked without
provocation?  Fear of being tortured without provocation?  Fear at being
jailed and held for months without provocation?  Embarrassed at being
seen
as a potential supporter of a ruthless and corrupt Administration?
10/5/04

"I do not care what political pedestal one wants to stand on but
Rep. Kahn's transgression is hardly "obstructing democracy"! 
The practice of "collecting" the opponents literature at the doorstep
while dropping off that of your candidate has been going on for years
around here(and elsewhere)." 10/2/04

"If DFL candidates do well, it is because more voters decide that those
candidates are more reflective of their views or are more responsive to
their issues, not because the voting system is flawed."  9/14/04

"The cold hard truth of it is that you are utterly dependent on
government for almost everything you do - you have been for a long time
and will continue to be as long as you live." 1/9/05

"Mr. Dayhoff appears to be an earnest young man and certainly does not
appear to be as far out in right field as republican school board
candidates
in Minneapolis have been in the past 10 years or so.  You might also
suggest
that he try answering a question from time to time instead of doing a
dandy
George W. Bush imitation with a smirk and a slogan. Endless repetition
of a
few platitudes is now the Republican idea of having a message but I
suspect
that Minneapolis voters will ask more of candidates for school board."
6/25/04

"FYI, I did not graduate from Harvard or Yale - my alma mater is
Augsburg
College right here in Minneapolis!  As great a bastion of clear thinking
as you will find anywhere!" 10/4/04


>From today's Minneapolis Observer.....

Charter Commission Will Hold Public Hearings on City's Structure

(Jan. 11) The recent journalistic expectoration on our fair city's
Byzantine
organizational structure has certainly had an effect on council members.
Despite an unofficial distaste for the Star Tribune's analysis, city
council
leaders have taken a public stand favoring further discussions.

The Intergovernmental Relations Committee this morning passed a
resolution
requesting that the Charter Committee conduct public hearings on the
matter,
a move designed as much to dissuade state lawmakers-including Sen. Larry
Pogemiller-from legislating some changes as to encourage a real civic
conversation.

The Charter Commission is apparently six drafts into some reform-minded
initiative, according to Council Member Paul Zerby (Ward 2). "It's not
going
very well," he said. Such a strategy is likely to delay or derail any
substantial change to the city's organizational chart-a result that
would no
doubt please most council members.




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