2005 Hopkins Charter Commission Annual ReportHopkins Charter Commission
Annual Report
2005
The Hopkins Charter Commission met three times in 2005: April 26, September 27, and November
15.
On April 26 the Commission chose Fran Hesch to be Chair and Roger Gross to be Vice-Chair.
The Commission made several changes to its by-laws:
1. Article III, Section 3 was amended to remove the two-term limit for Commission members.
2. Article IV, Section 2 was amended to change the term of office for all officers from one year
to two years.
3. Article V, Section 1 was amended to allow the Commission to meet in any public building
in Hopkins. The Commission had been running into conflicts with having to hold its
meetings in Hopkins City Hall. Several others scheduled public meetings forced the
Commission to hold its meetings in a small conference room at City Hall.
The Commission discussed amending Section 12.05 of the City Charter that deals with the sales of
real property. The Commission decided to refer this item to the City Attorney for further review.
The major item that the Commission worked on during 2005 involved changing the manner in
which the Mayor and Council Members were elected.
In 2004, the City Council, on the recommendation of the Charter Commission, established an
Alternative Voting Task Force to "obtain, study and evaluate data on alternative voting methods for
use in Hopkins." The Task Force presented a preliminary report to the Charter Commission at the
April 26, 2005 meeting.
The Charter Commission gave the Task Force additional time to complete its report and met again
on September 27. At that time, the Task Force recommended that the Charter Commission consider
adopting Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). This method of voting requires that winning candidates have
a majority of the votes.
At the September meeting, the Charter Commission voted to authorize the staff to draft a resolution
and Charter amendment, implementing IRV for the Mayor and Council using two passes of IRV for
the two council seats.
Staff drafted an ordinance that implements ranked ballot voting. The ordinance was drafted with the
assistance of the City Attorney and Mr. Tony Solgard, of FairVote Minnesota.
The Commission unanimously approved Resolution 2005-02, recommending that the Hopkins City
Council adopt Ordinance 2005-958 amending the City Charter. The Ordinance will be first
presented to the Hopkins City Council on December 20, 2005 with a recommendation that the
public hearing be held on January 17, 2006.