09-28-1993 Charter Commission Regular MeetingMinutes of the Hopkins Charter Commission
September 28, 1993
The Hopkins Charter Commission met on September 28. Present were Warren Woodrich, Paul
Ahles, William Arimond, Archie Black, Dorothy Boen, Richard Brubacher, Jannette Holen, Paul
Lund, Sally Morem, Don Roesner, and Ethel Wonson. City Clerk Jim Genellie was also present.
The Commission approved the minutes of July 30, 1992. The Commission requested that the
1992 minutes be sent to the new Commission members. The members also requested that, in the
future, the minutes from the last meeting of the previous year be sent to all members with the
announcement of the first meeting of the following year.
The Commission considered a number of amendments to the current charter.
Section 3.01. of the City Charter states that: "All meetings of the Council shall be public, and
any citizen shall have access to the minutes and records thereof at all reasonable times." State
law allows or requires the City Council to close public meetings in certain specific instances.
The Commission considered a variety of different wordings for this section. The Commission
voted unanimously to change the wording to: "Meetings of the City Council shall be open
pursuant to the Minnesota Open Meeting law and its exception. Minutes and records of open
meetings shall be available to any individual during regular business hours."
Section 4.01. of the City Charter contained the following language: "In the event this Charter
should be adopted at any time between April 1st of any odd numbered year and April 1st of any
even numbered year, a special election shall be held on the third Tuesday in May of such even
numbered year, at which special election all of the elected officials provided for by this Charter
shall be elected for terms of one year only." This language only applied to the adoption of the
original Charter.
The Commission voted unanimously to delete the above language from Section 4.01.
The Commission then discussed Section 4.04, Subdivision 2, which contains language
concerning primary elections. The Commission discussed whether to revise this language in
order to require primaries in certain situations. The Commission voted unanimously to not
recommend any changes in this Section.
The Commission directed the City Clerk to make the proposed changes to the City Charter and
prepare an ordinance for the City Attorney to review prior to the next Commission meeting.
The next Charter Commission meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, October 26 at 7:00 p.m.