##VIDEO ID:-zHD8J9mVdY## before we get started Ronin brought the roster I think that have everything up um you see anything that is spelled got any cell phone number or anything like that um then make sure to provide that information onwi so we can get that all cleaned up John Stanley um uh is no longer able to be on the charter commission so we have a vacancy we're in the process of filling that okay well it it's 7 o'clock so whatever button pushing yep we ready okay I will call the meeting to order uh could you call the role please yes um Rod Axel present bar or Ronald Barnes Hussein deir John Eagle Kathy Gustafson Cynthia hunt pres Brana Lindell Karen Lindquist present Jam mazr pres jeie McGovern Emily melv Lang Oro pres Steve Peterson here and Mark Thorson here okay thank you um next up we'll take up one appointing anding um acting recording secretary is agenda items are proposed by the staff so unless there's any discussion I'd receive a motion toing secretary that we would CH if I may we we um offered up two names here um just for a little bit of um additional uh resiliency uh so my recommendation would be that both of them are appointed do I hear a motion by AEL and seconded by hunt any discussion hearing none we'll we'll vote all those in favor carries unanimous next up before we go to item 2.2 I want to welcome the commission a what is it foure project threee project or fouryear project I uh four foure project GNA walk through the Section Charter conversation about them um the uh so we're we're kind of doing the first one of 2025 I think we wanted to have like three this year um yeah I've got a slide on that y three of them and uh and then we will have the regular annual meeting of the commission that's typically the first week in May this one yep and then depending on if there are items to be that can sent to us either by the city council um or by the B that's our welcome to the commission yeah um with that we'll go on to item 2.2 which is the periodic review of the city Charter and I will sh our attorney thank you also chair um while you while you were doing that introduction um I noticed that commissioner Melby also entered if you want to have that be reflected in the record as well and then I think we also have a couple of other new faces here too um um I know that people we've had a lot of um uh people coming in and out and asking whether they want to be reappointed and we have an opening right now a vacancy so um if there are people that you know of that want to be on the charter commission um certainly make sure that um we know about them or the mayor knows about them and we can make sure to fill that within the statutory time period all right so um as was ref reference we have um we are in year two of our systematic review of the of the charter and we are last year we tackled uh one two and three and then our rules of procedure we made some pretty significant updates to our rules of procedure to modernize them and match them with what we were how we were operating um as an organization as an entity um for those of you that are newer to the Charter commission the charter Commission is a separate entity um is uh in charge of U the city's Charter and the city's Charter is like the Constitution um of the United States it's roughly equivalent to that or to Minnesota um has a constitution it's roughly equivalent to that for the city of Bloomington so it's at a high level um and speaks about things um in in in general terms often every now and then in very specific terms uh and um oftentimes creates a process or a structure for accomplishing more technical nuanced things um on a much more granular level so tonight I want to go to the next slide you'll see the Cadence that we're working through tonight's chapters next slide um are four not actually all not all four of them tonight um but teeing up chapters four and potentially six depending upon how much time we have um chapter five I did not get into in your slides other than to show you um the table of content so to speak for that chapter but I am going to tee it up for you to be thinking about um and suggest that you take a look at it in preparation for the next um time that we get together it's a very meaty substantive chapter and um really really uh gets to the essence of a charter city um creates very specific reservations of powers for the citizens so um with that uh any questions before we start chapter four I got one more comment I want to make before we start and this is more aimed at folks who make be newer um as we're as we're going through looking at this you're going to have ideas like we could make that be different and there are uh there's basically two ways we can make we can make changes here we can either make changes that are so uncontroversial that seven members of so what that means is I think things that clarify things or things that if you look at it like we we could go and sell that to the city concil but if any city council member objects to that then it w't get adopted that way if we want to make a change and we can't convince the city pouncil then we have to go to the voters and ask the voters to to approve it um and that means we actually have to go persuade people to vote for something and that's a pretty high bar to hit for something and so um typically at this point in the city where the charter is 65 years old at this point um changes to the Charter that go to the voters are typically um you know for the most part things that either they can you can tie some good thing to it to people like oh I want to I want to support that because it'll get us a good thing or there's some controversy that happens in the city and and it exposes a defect in the charter and it's up to us to fix it and we're there's no controversy right now that would fall into that category but just keep in mind that um substantive changes to the Charter like let's say you decided you wanted nine city council MERS Clos to seven um we'd have probably have to go convince the voters to go through that Rod I think the well we certainly had conversations around uh around rank Choice voting but prior to that I think they the one other change that was substantive really was the way the charter was written back in the 50s and 60s is that it had to be revised to allow the a a tap room and so that was probably one of the uh one of the changes based upon the original language of the chart that language uh did not provide for uh for tap RS but it's not very often that that there's something like that that comes up I think it's what four five times I think since I've been on the charter commission and so just the the other thing I'll say is don't if you if you got ideas that you think that you might want to be different don't take this as like don't talk about them because we can certainly talk about them and I I do want people to get ideas out um just be aware that we you know that that there's there's going to be easy things and there's going to be harder things to do if we decide if we want to make changes so that's just what I want people to realize it's not we can't just change the charter by all those in favor say I and it's done it doesn't yeah yeah and uh thank you for that chair um the other thing I'll offer is that the process by which you can amend the charter is in state law so there are very specific Pathways that are set out in the law about how to amend the charart and so um for the E for the sort of straightforward clerical kinds of things um we make a decision um about how we want to proceed and the Cadence of this periodic review is set up such that you all would let us know if there's something in particular that you are concerned about and so that we can have adequate time to research and prepare um some language for your consideration at the annual meeting in May so this this the timing of this um winter uh deep dive is on purpose uh and um tease it up to the annual meeting similarly uh each year um in November December January time period I asked um all of the department directors and division heads to read the charter um to remind them um of what's in it uh and then also to flag things that are of concern or that don't make sense um or highlighting things that we want to just keep on our radar and so that um also happens um this past time um when when that question was asked we received some feedback um about some language that there's a desire to change um references specifically to assistant city manager there's a desire and a request to change that to the deputy city manager term modernization and that's much more common to refer to them as deputies uh and then the other thing that we have heard about and our city clerk is here tonight um and we're going to be talking about elections is um some communities are looking at changing to evene elections for a whole variety of reasons uh and our Charter requires odd-year elections for our government local government offices so those are the two things that we have heard about um that are on our radar um but again um we can we'll get into all of that so at the super high level um you know there are there were these edits that came to chapter 4 mainly related to rank Choice voting and there was a fair amount of back and forth that you'll see on the slides as we go through the legislative history is below each section and you'll see a lot of a lot of languages a lot a lot of edits a lot of revisions over the years and uh a lot of that came as a result of doing a very deep dive into our Charter when we were preparing for rank Choice voting and um doing the the sort of cleanup that would be required to modernize our our language but then also to make the conversion to rank Choice voting and you'll remember probably that it was on the ballot um twice so far and both times it um was adopted um by the voters to continue to be in the the form of voting and then to stay the form of voting so um twice now uh the voters have decided they want to haveing Choice voting in in the city so question yeah going back to Rod's comment or just the example that he gave about amending the charter for the tech work why is that how do you know like what would be a change to the Charter and what would be just a new ordinance why did that involve amending the charter and not just passing an ordinance that would allow it was there something in the charter that prohibited specifically uh yes um so chair and members the the charter had very specific language related to alcohol and state law has very specific language related to alcohol in Charters and the voting threshold to do so um we um as I learned during that process many years ago there was a desire when the charter was being put together and when the city was becoming uh a mod City in the 60s is um there was a desire to prevent bars um from being like saloons from existing in in Bloomington uh and um having wet versus dry cities was a very big deal and you had to vote to become a wet City and the so if you look at the border of the northern border of Bloomington it sort of goes like this and there are little properties that go up and down and there was a fair amount of um line moving uh and history about the city related to alcohol regulation so if it's not in the charter it's it's regulated by essentially um chair members there is the state law you know the federal law state law um and then the charter um most I'm trying to figure out like how deep to get on the reads on this so when Charter cities um um some Charter cities are very very old like Minneapolis and Ramsey County hpin County our Charter counties as well um but there was a modern Charter model that was created um in the 6070s um and rolled out in many cities adopted the model Charter and so if you look at other cities um that are uh Suburban um like for example Robinsdale or Richfield they have like the same structure they're talking about the same sort topics um in the same like chapter chapter 4 in most of them is you know it just follows the same because they all many of them started from the same uh and whatever was going on in the world at that time they decided that these were the things that Charters should address um and when the charter was originally prepared it was a document that came through the the citizens and so that was what the citizens of Bloomington also thought needed to be in the charter so it's a very Grassroots document but informed by the model code that was in circulating at the time in the world at the time yeah there was also model city codes as well so like if you're looking for liquor it's almost always in 13 so there's just like things like that that have happened over time right any other questions before we get started so um I want to just make sure everybody knows that we have the city clerk here thanks so much to Jamie for being here uh she's extremely knowledgeable extremely knowledgeable and and survived the last election uh and so I would want to encourage her to jump in um repeatedly um whenever she wants and you can also through the chair obviously ask questions um I have no pride of answering them if Jamie is um the better person to answer similarly with Peter Peter has um uh lived and breathe the rank Choice voting and um has a deep knowledge of the language as well so I'm not the only one who can answer questions tonight although I'm happy to the other thing to know is that um by way of background there are State CH there's a lot of state law on elections and and as you'll see in our Charter we we General law election laws apply um and then there's also administrative rules um at the state level and they also apply and they dictate all kinds of things from the size of the font to um ovals and I mean very very detailed um regulations so uh this document is uh at a very high level um in many cases but also very very specific in others so with that let's go to the next slide all right so 4.1 regular Municipal elections I wanted you to hear see here um obviously the Cadence of it after the first Monday like you all accustomed to As Americans and then um odd numbered years in the City Municipal elections are an odd number years um the other thing I wanted you to know is the the council has to uh designate where the elections are held um and um that is in our Charter here Jamie or Peter you want to add anything all right nothing in 4.2 uh 4.3 next slide so the other thing is there are general elections and then if it's not a general election then it's going to be a special election so for example if there's a vacancy on the council um somebody um resigns um moves away something like that it creates the need to have a special election the C there is a specific procedure both in our Charter but also in state law about how that happens um ours is not terribly honorous and there's all kinds of very very specific calculations about how that happens in stay law I have a question on this is you the language uh with respect to the official newspaper uh you know that used to have the Bloomington suncurrent now I think it's suncurrent assuming that they're still in business six months from now is that uh what is our official newspaper uh chair and members the official newspaper for the city of Bloomington is the suncurrent and annually we did it um last Monday night um we declare what is the official newspaper there is state law on how you figure out what that is it has to be a newspaper of General circulation within the jurisdiction uh a couple of other things and so we periodically will look at the rates in the circulation the last time I looked at it um it was affirmed that we would continue to use the blomington suncurrent um based on for lack of a better term saturation in the city of Bloomington and so there's enough uh enough distribution of some current within the blooming to community that it's that the council feels comfortable that that that that if someone wants to read something that uh it's going to show up on their doorstep theoretically y um chair and members the other thing that we so we usually look at the main ones that that that are often used are a trade magazine called finance and commerce where a lot of like foreclosures and things are published and then the Star Tribune um and the Pioneer Press and then the local newspaper if there is one um I think you know the world is a very different place than it was when all these official newspaper requirements came to be um and the city recognizes that and just like you can get our agenda packet in the mail you can also get our agenda packet on the city's website and so we um everything that's required to be posted on the in the official newspaper is also on the city's website it's the city website notices and they're all there um whenever they're needed to be posted in the time that they're needed to be posted along with a link live links to the actual text of the ordinance or the resolution or whatever that's being um discussed so um we comply with the requirements on the official newspaper but the substantive interaction is happening through mailings and through postings on the all right next slide filing of C candidates um we did a fair amount of editing on this Mo I shouldn't want to say editing it was editing but modernization there was a fair amount of discussion on 4.4 over the years as you can see from the legislative history uh some things that I wanted to point out to you uh is um any eligible person or excuse me an eligible person um can uh file an Affidavit of candidacy um that there was some cleanup that occurred with regard to that language um to make it a little bit more clear um and then the um other thing that we did was uh clean up um the language in there related to filing um there was some very specific dates that were in chapter in section 4.04 like numbers of days and we um in consultation with the charter Commission concl uded that the applicable filing schedule would be a more durable way of referring to that um it's because if the legislature changed their dates we would then have to do some editing of our Charter our Charter would be out of Step but we wouldn't be able to comply with both so that was a change that was made and then there was a lot of discussion um in years past about the fee uh and what was the right amount of the fee um it ranges um throughout the the state um but this $50 fee was the one that was ultimately put in the charter uh the city has to pay prepare and pay for the ballot um prep uh this is becomes um a consideration when we talk about the timing of our elections and the need to have a primary election uh it's many tens of thousands of dollars to put on an election and so preparing the ballots is a part of that cost uh and then similarly the um party designation is not a part of the municipal candidacy on the ballot any questions anything you want to add and just looking around the room um probably most folks weren't around when we had the conversation with Fe but we had a this was back before we had rank Choice voting when we have primaries the we had a fairly regular occurrence where someone would file in an election and trigger a primary um maybe you have three candidates for particular seat on the council but then one of the people wouldn't actually do anything they wouldn't campaign they just would do nothing and as what mentioned you know it costs a bundle of money to run a primary election and to run a primary election when people aren't even putting any effort into going and doing it they just back then it was $2 so it was literally nothing um know we had a conversation at the charter commission that didn't want that and so the we shift it from $2 to $50 to more kind of test to see what that made people think about that a little bit um when the voters adopted rank Choice voting the filing fee no longer kind of of has that same behavior so I but but that's the history behind the filing feed change was that we got some of us got tired of spending our tax money on elections where they wasn't really a useful thing to have next one again what I mentioned before um this is statement that the general election laws apply this actually became something that was a part of our rank Choice voting um arguments before the state courts um and trying to sus out some of the what the law me uh next slide uh this is a a um the term of art uh the canvasing of Elections uh the council must meet in canas there's a very specific time period in state law in which that has to happen often results in a Friday night council meeting or Saturday morning um and then they declare the results uh that gets filed uh the clerk is the custodian and of of all of these ballots and they have to do all kinds of things to keep them secure here um and make sure that everything is counted and coordinated and all the things that you would expect um any questions about the canvasing of Elections all right next Slide the language about rank Choice voting uh some things to note here um it is only the mayor and the city council and that is the extent of it under the law right now now um and that is what our Charter reflects uh and then also that we are um able to adopt the council is able to adopt rules and regulations related to the procedures so our city code has a lot more detail about how we're going to do this election so for example um it we we made an amendment recently was it last year about the year before about how many uh names how many blanks there were going to be um and that was informed by a whole variety of things including uh fitting it all on the page so a lot goes into producing and preparing these ballots and um sometimes you have to make tweaks and so this Charter provision allows for those adjustments to be made next slide this is chapter five which I mentioned in our opening uh introduction this is we're not going to get we're not going to have time to get into it uh and on there's 20 sections uh we did a fair amount of editing um of this section of this chapter rather back in 2021 um we received feedback from people um that or we would have um challenge is figuring out whether somebody was intending to do certain things that accomplish certain things Allowed by chapter 5 so there was a fair amount of of um procedural like I don't want to say cleanup but like giving them samples um sample form of petition so that it would help them um help a person who wants to utilize the the options under chapter 5 be more successful in meeting very very specific requirements uh so a lot of those changes came in there and before we could have a conversation about it I would really like folks to take a look at it um one thing I'll just mention that came up um uh internally um in looking at this chapter I mean other two things I want to say one is that not every not every Charter city has all three powers not every city has um the same P same power so this Charter commission may decide that it wants to remove or um amend some of the authority um to to bring these types of actions the other thing that has been talked about is the percentages that are required in order to initiate some of these measures um they are they they they have significant impacts and um there was a suggestion that the charter commission may want to pay attention and have perhaps a discussion the next time we get together about whether these percentages um to meet the threshold for these petitions to move on to the later stages are still the right percentages in this state in you know the TW in 2025 so those are the two things that have um that have risen up um internally that um I thought would be relevant to mention to you we did a fair amount of research um during the rank choice vot in um litigation uh related to powers and what was intending to happen and similarly with also with organized collection and um had done a fair amount of of review of a lot of other cities Charters to see what powers they had relative to ours so just something to be to be um aware of the other thing I'll add is that if you have um things that you would like me to be prepared to talk about um in detail the next time we talk about chapter 5 um I think that that would be really helpful to know in advance um because I want to one do a good job but also because there it's a big chapter and it's really really the the the part of a charter City it is reserving these powers only for the citizens and it's very Grassroots and so I want to make sure that I can have a we can have a qualitative discussion anything else on chapter five good question do you expect that that's going to be more than one meeting likely totally up to you I me there's a lot I'm guessing that it may be go beyond there's a chair members there's a fair number of sections that repeat themselves like the form of form of form of those are pretty quick um and then after our cleanup there's a there's a fair amount of repetition um based on what procedure people are trying to do but I'd also be interested to hear feedback on whether you think it it's understandable um because of all the chapters this was one that we'd want to make sure it's super understandable for people in preparation for that I think one thing I'd be curious could bring back is um insights into like the percentages so for instance 15% of total um number of votes C for that referendum petition stuff like that what are the numbers on that yeah just if there um historical context as and maybe some of the mean behind those thresholds shair members I can certainly try to find I certainly can do the math with Jamie's help um you know if like those were based on you know some of the stuff in the chter as we talked in some of the previous meetings is based on um just like has historical context and I didn't know maybe there was something like that so I can chair members I can certainly dig into that any other questions on that before I move on right so um I I will defer to you all if you want to move on to chapter six I prepared it um because I thought one particularly relevant has a lot of stuff in there about the city manager um but then also um I I thought we could probably have enough time to tackle it um during this meeting uh so all right I'm seeing that in Heads next slid and we should probably mention if you didn't see the news that our city managers yeah resigned and is now being is now the head of Catholic Charities so we have acting city managers yeah um um so when you say it's particularly right that's because because we're in a process of just the very early stages of selecting so from the headlines um so this is chapter six administration of City Affairs uh and not a terribly long chapter but it really is pretty um pretty heavy on the substance so uh next slide there you go city manager um if you think about the the org chart the city manager is is sort of like the COO uh CEO um of the organization uh it is the only this position is the only employee of the city council um the council chooses the manager um and you'll see here the the manager doesn't have to be a resident um at the time of appointment um they are appointed for an indefinite period of time and they can be removed by the council at any time uh it is not unheard of for um a meeting to start and there will be uh an a request to a motion to amend the agenda to add removal of the city manager uh or city administrator to the the meeting and then the city and uh sometimes city manager is terminated it's not unheard of um super unfortunate uh when that happens sometimes um if it's a surprise but our Charter um uh has a very specific process laid out for how long um and what removal looks like and um reinstatement and lots of process so our Charter um and I I didn't go and look at what happened in 88 um but maybe something happened in 88 that um that in another community that suggested that this should be added so um with regard to uh the final sentence here uh the uh there is a structure in place um and under ordinary times there is the assistant city manager deputy which is um often times uh fills in for the vacancy um of the city manager um if you uh tuned in to item 3.19 on the consent agenda on Monday night that that was the council designating um interim city managers um and so that's important for all kinds of things you'll see in the charter as having very specific duties and responsibilities not only in this chapter but throughout the city code and um other circumstances as well next slide so just a little bit more of a comment you talked a little bit about um city managers started being let go um just for historical context in Bloomington since the charter was adopted in 1960 who had three city managers in 65 years and none of them have been left left on their own milion two of them retired and one of them went where his heart told go me we 1988 would be towards the end of John pigeons yeah would have been pigeon it's right at the end there because pigeon was a manager I think for 37 years I think um but yeah it's it uh bling is one of the reasons why like if you hear the mayor talk about the city manager position it it really is for a lot of people their dream job to come be the city manager of wilington because it's so stable um and it's an interesting place to work um and it's considered to be well run and so um it shows because we've only had three people that have done it they've stuck with it forever typically is a job where people will take the job and it's it's going to be their final job until they retire so if someone is terminated it doesn't have to be with just cause does it no it just you piss off for council member is and the reason you're pissing them off might and Mark bartson used to say to me that his job was to keep four City Council Members happy he said it didn't have to always be the same four can change over time so all right so this next section 6.02 uh it it it's I felt when I was reading this I was like it sort of pretends like it's specific but it's very high level um there are some things but there there you know like Coos here in charge of the direction and administration enforcement uh they control um the administration they have to attend all the meetings unless they're excused um all the meetings of the council um they uh they recommend the matters that the city council is going to be taking action on and that is uh thankfully or conveniently what the process is also in writing for the rules of procedure for the council as well um some sometimes people will ask how do I get an item on the agenda well there was a very specific process to get an item on the council agenda um and the city manager recommending uh it is one of the ways the city manager is also responsible for the financial condition uh and they have to prepare and and transmit an annual budget um our Charter contains some specific language um about that budgeting process and amending that budgeting process uh then the adoption of the administrative code which in Bloomington is our city code and then you know the all encompassing other duties as required parent are assigned any questions questions one thing I'll just point out here is that hasn't changed yet all right the next section 6.03 this is one of the very few cities that has a Merit system and I don't I it's one of those areas of uh that there aren't a lot of other cities I can't remember Peter are two other cities that have a merit system that I want to say like Brooklyn Park maybe or there's a northern suburb that's one and um one I think in like Southern Minnesota yeah not very many other cities that have a merit system um so we have um the council established this Merit system uh it's also exists in our city code um and it covers regular employees um and uh the city manager the City attorney the assistant city manager and the deputy City attorneys and assistant City attorneys are not covered so there is in our employment rules there's the the folks that are covered by the Merit system and then there's uh a page of rules for the people that are not covered um um the other thing is that we have a merit board uh and it's a small Board of three people um that the council appoints from um the people of the city and uh they have very specific Powers um that are further described here and um they have hearings when there are um alleged violations um they have very specific Powers related to the employment rules and regulations uh and meet once a month and then as needed we meet quarterly quarterly any questions about the Merit system one question I have no I have to emphasize this I have no opinions about the Merit system or not having the Merit system but is removing the Merit system um some something that the the charter commission could recommend I mean uh chair and members the charter commission could certainly recommend the removal the Merit system uh I would say that the like the the more common Le existing uh system is like the classified service which a lot of communities a lot of cities have so we use this Merit system uh format um I've never done a side by side to compare and contrast the two of them maybe Peter has um specific opinions about that but if before we would do that or recommen make that sort of a recommendation I would certainly want to do that and see is you know and highlight for you the substance of differences sure and and again i' I'd emphasize this is really out of the blue and but I'm when you indicated that it's we're one of the few that still have a merit system makes me wonder well you know what do others do and why a question from Peter since you attend these these meetings on regular basis is it without naming people but give a couple examples of the types of things that come to the Merit board sure uh chair members so for example one of the big substantive changes the May for considered was in our employment rules which governs the terms and conditions of employment when an employee was suspended demoted or terminated they have appeal rights because we are government um employees have a property interest in their employment um they're afforded due process and they under the old employment rules that process was handled at the office of administrative hearings um through administrative law judge and what we found is that process takes a very long time it's very expensive upwards of $ 30 to $40,000 uh to separate an employee and so and it could take a year and so one of the recommendations staff had to the Merit board was to change the employment rules to make that process quicker and and more uh cost efficient and so they have changed it to now utilize our independ independent hearing officer model that we have in existing code um so that's just kind of one of the the changes that they've taken up um another change that they've taken up is our paid parental leave program or policy and so because that was a termin and condition of employment that had to go through the through the mayor board for consideration and ultimately to the city council for approval so if a person has been suspended or or someone starts the process of termination that individual can they appeal to the Merit board to to have a impartial hearing chair members uh that is correct so there's a a Grievious process that's laid out in the employment rules and we'll go through a variety of steps so if it gets to the point of an independent hearing officer that hearing officer will essentially hold a mini trial where you'll present Witnesses evidence and the city Bears the burden that uh by a preponderance of the evidence that um it had just caused to either suspend or demote or separate that employee that independent hearing officer will make a recommendation to the Merit board they'll make a findings of fact inclusion of law the employee then has an opportunity to actually kind of raise some points or of disagreement with that recommendation to the Merit board the Merit board can consider that and then they can either make their own decision reduce or change the whatever the city decided or they can uphold that decision so over the last five years uh what's the frequency of that type of an appeal process or hearing of a of a situ a where someone has has been either potentially discharged or or some other action brought against that person is it 10 times two times chair and members uh since I've been here which is five years it's been long yeah have a much better understanding what the Merit board does know there you yeah any other questions about the mer this uh section talks about the administrative part uh again pretty straightforward the council can create uh departments divisions and bureaus uh some City some City councils have in codes have a very very they'll lay out every single Department in the city and get into the structure of every Department in their codified code Bloomington does not do that um we have some offices that are created for example the Office of the city clerk is created in our CH in our code AS is the Emergency Management director uh that that that office is created in the code city manager is created um and there are references um to things but uh there isn't a uh very very specific structure that is codified by the city council in the current structure of our city next slide em question it gives them the power to cre what about uh chair members they could open power so they could also remove that this is what I was uh seeing up there the office of the city clerk is established uh this is uh because it is a uh council's uh Charter created office um when the city clerk position is vacant we have to name who that city clerk is the city clerk has very specific duties and obligations in the law um not too um dissimilar to the level of requirements for the city manager in every City's structure is a little bit different but in some cities the clerk has to sign everything uh in Bloomington um they can uh delegate that or they assign that to the recording secretary but in some cities the city clerk is signing every single thing our city clerk signs a lot of things as well um but um this is just a a create an an example of the creation of that specific office anything you want to add see clerk happy to be created all right um so this is a this section 6.06 and 6.07 um we have talked about a fair amount um as a charter Commission um there have been some tweaks um this is this these next couple of sections talk about and I know the chair has um some more history on them um but essentially they create a structure for the execution of documents uh and they refer they use the structure um they defer to or they default rather to the structure that is in state law um which is called the uniform form Contracting uh system I believe um chapter 471 345 and it breaks out dollar amounts um sort of tranches of dollar amounts in this the level of um process that's required uh and what we have done in the city of Bloomington is sort of overlay that with the structure that we use to execute documents so the city manager uh can execute documents up to $175,000 and then above $175,000 uh has to be executed by the city council it's more nuanced than that but that's um sort of the essence of it uh and the city uh the city mayor does not have independent authority to execute a contract unless the city council adopts it um whereas the city manager can execute a document below $175,000 because it isn't required by law to have been done by the city council does that roughly make sense and so periodically over time um things cost money different amounts of money and the dollar amounts that are in state law get updated and so we um periodically will look at our dollar amounts and make sure they still make sense um we we have a we have a matrix about the the process that's required based on the dollar amount and then we also have Financial man this is outside of the charter but just because it's relevant we also have financial management policies and procurement policies and purchasing policies that add greater gradiation to how one can purchase in the approval process that's required all of that is Flowing up to and from these next couple of sections in the city Charter and when they are amended when there's a desire to amend them the council has to do that so if we amend our financial management policies it's the council that's taking that action the other thing that's on here is the ability to delegate to department heads so at the city of Bloomington up to $50,000 could be signed by a department head um or the assistant city managers uh and the other thing that we've talked about here is that the City attorney has to review and approve every contract um which means a whole bunch of things um but one thing that it means is that we know how many there are every year and um we almost uh crossed the Thousand contract threshold this year uh and I we're just a couple below that we executed um a lot more were started but a couple were abandoned um before they got signed so that's fill numbers that we're dealing with a lot a lot of reviewing and approving uh there's a structure um underneath uh the City attorney signature that creates uh a review and approval process um we talked about this in previous meetings um the division head has to approve um and then it goes up um well the attorney has to approve and then before it starts the execution process the division Ed has to approve it and then it goes out to the vendor and then it comes back to me and then it goes to either the department head or the city manager and or the mayor to sign so there's a whole structure in place to make sure that things are being done according to the law into our own financial management policies anything more you want to add um and if you think that sounds cumbersome these processes aren't unusual in business so like I I did a purchase order at work for a little bit under b or something and it required five people it had to get around around five people to get approval so it's it's not at all that sort of workflow to end up happening in organization um I'm a firm believer of plain English and I think that all documents something the charter a constitution should be written in language that an ordinary person can understand 6.07 has anyone ever considered writing that one or 6.06 also in active verbs oh yeah passive there's a second sentence in 6.06 that it's 67 words long any sentence more than5 words been just doing you know the city manager and the mayor must some contracts and bonds yeah only the city manager must sign these and even making those changes would make this accessible to more people in the city which is important people should know what what the city Charter says shair members um I see that you have another member do you want recognize Mr bar welcome thank you sorry I'm no problem great glad you're here watching the line of traffic going on the freeway and wondering how many people would be here now oh uh chair members I I I think that's an excellent suggestion for everything that we do and how we do it um we have um had discussions about that um in the past and and try to do that in our writing in general modern uh drafting that we do it would be the prerogative of the charter commission to direct me to do that um and me know if you want me to we hold that thought until the end here have that as a little topic of conversation at the end okay all right next section uh why don't we do 6.07 a little bit um this is this is again uh it's saying the city manager is the chief purchasing agent I've often wondered there's not a lot of difference now between 6.06 and 6.07 it also could probably be um tidied up and there's a lot of repetition between the two um but it talks about um a lot of the things that I I talked about both of these kind of together um it did you all did make a change that allowed me to delegate the signature authority to another licensed attorney uh under certain terms and conditions and so there is a delegation memo that I prepared after you all authorize that to happen and it sets out the terms and conditions under which I'm am authorized to delegate uh and um we have um a process in place wherein that happens and oftentimes I delegate to Peter and he signs when I'm out of the office for three or more business days and um some Nuance on that one of the things that Peter and I have talked about is should that delegation be changed one of the things that the um the charter commission has talked about is should we um broaden how that current delegation policy is is drafted to to say um to have to take a particular approach for example that contracts under $50,000 um could be signed by the attorney that reviews them um so that might not always be me that might be one of the assistant City attorneys it might wouldn't be Peter wouldn't be me um one of that's just one of the that we've been talking about is is there a way I will say that there are also benefits to the current structure in that because I see every single contract uh I I notice like for example this is a silly example but it's very simple and easy to understand I sign lots and lots of contracts with a particular person her name I I know her name right now I sign a lot of contracts with her and uh there's small smaller contracts and I I called up the originator and I said who is this her name is Pauline who is this who's Pauline we entered into a lot of contracts with her um for doing a whole bunch of different things could we just do one contract and then we just agree in advance that we're going to pay Pauline this amount every time we asked her to do the following eight things and so we had a conversation and we cleaned that up um but because I see everyone of them I'm able to say able to do that and notice that similarly um we have um other other situations where where that is also the case you just see things because uh or um and then you know it also creates just a lot of um opportunity to know what's going on too and I can ask if I see something that doesn't make sense and and I you know per periodically ask Peter questions like why why did you make that choice help me understand why you made that choice and then I I know what's going on as well so there is a there is a helpful function to it too next slide just one thing I want to point out here and you mentioned kind of a little bit of History if you look you look down on the bottom and the kind of list of changes and you see that this section and the next section have the change from 1987 and the 1987 change is is one of the changes to the Charter that was a reaction to something that happened and it was the the initial Mall contract which cythia you remember because you were around for the mall contract and the mayor at the time went and kind of cut a deal on the mall kind of kind of back of napkin is kind of deal um that was the initial kind of contract for the mall and it wasn't clear in the in the charter whether the mayor at that point had that power and so the the charter commission you know and ended up kind of changing the charter to kind of clarify that because of that particular situation and so I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that sometimes changes in the chter our reaction to things that happen and this these sections reflect that about happening it's great that's great history thank you chair all right um I wanted to highlight a couple of things on here the council Awards uh those contracts that are over 175 that we have to do competitive bidding on um some things to just know about is that it doesn't happen very often but every now and then um the council will reject all bids or there there will be a staff recommendation to reject all bids that um can happen for a whole bunch of different reasons but one of those one of the reasons is if there isn't enough money um to pay for it um there isn't the budget so there's a oftentimes an engineer's estimate about something's going to cost and then if they go out for bids and the world has changed um or they didn't realize a really important thing was present that wasn't accounted for in their estimate uh and the bids come in and they're way out of um Reach For What was budgeted um the council has the authority to just recheck them all so that's a important power um that the council has the other thing I wanted to highlight is this notion of the lowest responsible bidder uh and oftentimes there a notion that the government has to contract with the with the cheapest bidder and while that's often also the lowest responsible bidder every now and then there are situations where um when when the bid is being reviewed um or um or uh we find out that the bidder is on the deartment list or something like that um and or if the bid has characteristics where the people that are reviewing it it's like you know a million dollars cheaper than everybody else's bid like why maybe they didn't think of something um is that a responsible bid so just to just to know that there's more than just the cheapest bid it has to be the lowest responsible bit all right next with emphasis I assume un responsible I mean it's obviously a squishy term but yeah I mean it does come up every now and then so on for H sometimes there would be a developer that you just know is probably not given their size and capable doing the project maybe the lowest bitter among the lowest biders is probably not the responsible responsible decision to go yeah essentially what's to letter a contract to award award yeah yeah to your earlier Point good yeah all right all right that's it um so a reminder of the calendaring um next slide um is the teeing up the question here and then um I know that Adrien pulled you all on a bunch of dates um we will not be meeting on any additional Thursdays in Janu January if you had a hold on them um those dates aren't going to work um for us to to meet um to continue our periodic review and so Ron were you able to PLL M February and March yes yeah um not everybody replying I don't have exactly who I did get okay right now but um people okay I think it looks like it's going to be um April okay for people who reply looks like April is when most people are free okay great so um watch we will uh if you haven't already replied uh to bronwin please do that uh so that we can make sure we have a quorum and then we'll send out a save the date um and just a reminder that the packet uh comes out on um we changed our rules so it doesn't come out um so so so many days in advance um but this this particular time and and we'll Endeavor to do it next time as well um to get it to you as soon as possible um and obviously also meeting our Ro but just to remind that we're going to be talking about chapter five and you can start looking at it tonight the other thing is that our annual meeting date you all set that last year and that's May 1 um so if you um are able to join us on May 1st that would be great because that annual meeting lots of stuff happens at that meeting did you say you're going to be sending around a list of carer members and members and all that or was um uh chair and members we have a list um of ground did you bring that list yeah it's okay we have it we'd like everybody to take a look at it it has people's um cell phones and um and work phones on there so we didn't necessarily want to wanted to make sure that it was correct it hasn't been updated in a while so we didn't want to have a bunch of copies circulating around if it had out ofd so if you want to take a look at it before you leave to make sure your information is correct that great going back to the review um Karen did have a suggestion that we consider taking I don't know maybe it would be 6. six seven and eight and see if there's a combination of those and a rewriting that makes it I wanted to get the sense of the group to see if they felt like we ought to consider that and I didn't hear any substantive changes it's more about making it so that people it's more go ahead Rod yeah to Karen's follow up there is I just looking at 607 is that and maybe it's the way I comprehend information but uh but if that was broken into four different areas with some spaces in between is that uh uh I probably would not be overwhelmed with the legal ease without changing a word M yeah but I'm not I'm not hearing an objection so I think discuss kind of lightweight edit that Rod talked about putting some paragraphs in there or maybe a little more substantive than together but I didn't hear anybody proposing hey I want to change how this works it's more keeping the same and then so chair and members given that we're probably going to meet in April would that be something that you might want me to bring to you in April for your was ready a look at yeah good R anything else on the charter review before we're done with not hearing anything we'll move on to adjournment do I hear a motion toj don't move is there a second second and second all those in favor the record that was Thorson and hunt Okay you turn off the recording that Mouse is terrible it's not you all the dates and March are off the table Yeah so um we were doing a bunch of social and they put that and uh we just couldn't quite figure out what Adrian had generated for data SK the list of dates that it falling for kind of the updated schedules that we knew of and then I sent out an email with dates and I think that those are the ones that brought I know I only asked because I changed the