City of Breckenridge, MN Council Meetings, Resolutions, Ordinances and Referendum

§ C6-1 Council meetings.

The Council shall consist of the Mayor and six Aldermen. The Mayor shall preside over its meetings but shall have no vote except in the case of a tie when he or she shall have the power to cast the deciding vote unless as otherwise provided for in this Charter. In the case of emergency ordinances, the Mayor shall have no power of veto.

The annual meeting of the Council shall be held on the first Monday after the first Tuesday in January of each year. Regular meetings of the Council shall be held at such times as may be prescribed by ordinance, except that there shall not be less than one regular Council meeting each month, and the time and manner for calling special meetings shall be prescribed by ordinance. A majority of the Aldermen shall be a quorum to do business, but a lesser number may adjourn from time to time.

All legislative action imposing a penalty shall be by ordinance, except as otherwise provided by the laws of the state or this Charter. The Council shall keep a journal of its proceedings which shall be a public record, and every final vote upon the passage of all ordinances and resolutions shall be by yeas and nays and entered in the journal. No ordinance shall be passed without the concurrence of a majority of the Council, and all meetings of the Council shall be public.

§ C6-2 Ordinances.

The enacting clause of all ordinances shall be "The Council of the City of Breckenridge, Minnesota, does ordain:." Every ordinance except emergency ordinances shall be presented in writing and shall be fully and distinctly read at two Council meetings, and at least one week shall elapse between the first and final readings thereof. Every ordinance shall be published once in the official newspaper of the City or, in the event that at any time there is no legal newspaper in the City, shall be posted in three public places in the City. All ordinances, except emergency ordinances, shall take effect immediately after their publication or posting unless the ordinance contains a provision stating that it shall take effect at a later time.

§ C6-3 Emergency ordinances.

An emergency ordinance is an ordinance for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, in which the emergency is defined or declared in the preamble thereto, and no emergency ordinance shall be passed without the concurrence of a majority of all of the Aldermen. An emergency ordinance may be read and adopted at one meeting of the Council. An emergency ordinance shall take effect immediately upon its passage. No grant of any franchise shall be construed to be an emergency.

§ C6-4 Approval and reconsideration of ordinances.

Every ordinance or resolution of the Council, except emergency ordinances, shall before it takes effect be presented to the Mayor for approval; if the Mayor shall approve it, he or she shall sign the same, but if the Mayor disapproves it, he or she shall return it to the City Clerk-Treasurer with his or her objections thereto to be presented to the Council at its next regular or adjourned meeting or at a special meeting called for that purpose. Upon the return of any ordinance or resolution by the Mayor, the vote by which the same was passed shall be deemed to have been reconsidered, and the question shall again be put upon the passage of the same notwithstanding the objections of the Mayor, and, if upon such reconsideration, the same shall pass by a majority vote of all the Aldermen, it shall have the same effect as if approved by the Mayor. If an ordinance or resolution shall not be returned by the Mayor within three days, Sundays and holidays excluded, after it shall have been presented to him or her, the same shall have the same effect as if approved by him or her.

§ C6-5 Referendum.

The people of the City of Breckenridge reserve to themselves the power, in accordance with the provisions of this Charter, to require ordinances or any part thereof, other than emergency ordinances, passed by the Council to be referred to the voters for their approval or disapproval through referendum. If, within 15 days after the passage and approval of an ordinance by the City Council, a petition signed by qualified voters equal in number to 15% of the total vote cast in the City for all candidates for governor at the last preceding general state election is filed with the City Clerk-Treasurer requesting that any such ordinance or part thereof be repealed, the effect of such ordinance shall be suspended, and it shall be laid over pending further proceedings as hereinafter provided.

Any five voters may form a referendum committee. More than one copy of the same referendum petition may be circulated as part of a single petition, but the circulator of each copy shall make an affidavit that each signature thereon is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. Each petition shall be in substantially the following form:

	REFERENDUM PETITION
	Proposing the repeal of an Ordinance entitled "____________" or part of an Ordinance entitled "_________________," which part reads as follows: "_________________." A copy of said ordinance is hereto attached. The proposed repeal is sponsored by the following committee of voters:
	Name	Address
	1.
	2.
	3.
	4.
	5.
	The undersigned qualified voters of the City of Breckenridge, understanding the nature of the measure hereto attached and believing it to be detrimental to the welfare of the City, petition the Council for its repeal or submission to the voters for approval or rejection.
	Name of Voter	Address

All copies of the petition shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk-Treasurer as one instrument. Within five days after the filing of the petition, the City Clerk-Treasurer shall ascertain by examination whether the petition is regular and has been signed by the required percentage of voters. If the City Clerk-Treasurer finds the petition insufficient or irregular, he or she shall at once notify one or more of the referendum committee stating the reasons for his or her findings. The committee shall then be given 10 days in which to file additional copies of the petition or a corrected petition. The Clerk-Treasurer shall present the petition or corrected petition to the Council at its next regular meeting, certifying it if he or she finds it regular and sufficient or if he or she finds it irregular and insufficient, stating that it was filed with him or her and the reasons for finding it insufficient or irregular. If certified, the Council shall reconsider the ordinance or part thereof to which objection has been made and either repeal the same or part thereof to which objection has been made or repass the ordinance without change. Should the ordinance be so repassed, the Council shall immediately call an election to be held thereon and, if a majority of the votes cast on the question are opposed to the ordinance or part thereof, it shall be deemed repealed, but if a majority favor the ordinance or part thereof as passed by the Council, it shall take effect immediately or upon the date therein specified. Should the Clerk-Treasurer present the petition to the Council with a finding that it is insufficient or irregular, the Council may either reconsider and repeal the ordinance or part thereof to which objection is made or may, despite such insufficiency or irregularity of the petition, refer the matter to the voters or may by resolution adopt the Clerk-Treasurer's findings as to such insufficiency or irregularity, in which case such determination shall be final and the ordinance as originally passed shall be in full force and effect.