§ 7.2. Departments.  


Latest version.
  • (a)

    The departments generally. The City Council must establish, organize, and otherwise provide for these departments:

    (1)

    a City Coordinator;

    (2)

    a City Clerk (section 4.2(e));

    (3)

    a City Assessor;

    (4)

    a City Finance Officer and budget office, including a director;

    (5)

    a City Attorney and legal department;

    (6)

    a civil rights department, including a director, and a civil rights commission (section 7.2(d));

    (7)

    a department of community planning and economic development;

    (8)

    a fire department (section 7.4);

    (9)

    a health department, headed by a health commissioner;

    (10)

    a planning commission (section 7.2(e));

    (11)

    a police department (section 7.3);

    (12)

    a public-works department;

    (13)

    a purchasing department;

    (14)

    a regulatory-services department; and

    (15)

    any other department necessary or convenient for the efficient delivery of municipal services.

    (b)

    Departmental organization. The ordinance establishing each department must provide for an officer or a board or commission as its head, for any other necessary officer, and for appropriate staff and other resources. The Mayor nominates and the City Council appoints each department's head under section 8.4(b), except as this charter or any applicable law or ordinance otherwise provides.

    (c)

    City attorney.

    (1)

    Function. Except as this charter otherwise provides, the City Attorney and the legal department under his or her direction—

    (A)

    serve as the attorneys and counselors at law to the Mayor, the City Council and its committees, and the other boards, commissions, committees, departments, and officers for which this charter provides; and

    (B)

    counsels, and delivers an opinion on any legal question from, the Mayor, the City Council and its committees, and the other boards, commissions, and committees for which this charter provides, who must consult only the City Attorney (and must not employ or pay any other attorney) for any necessary legal advice.

    (2)

    Deputy City Attorneys. The City Attorney may appoint two deputies, who serve in the unclassified service, but with the same employee benefits (except as to hiring and removal) as an officer in the classified service. If a deputy is appointed from the classified service, then he or she is treated as taking a leave of absence while serving as a deputy, after which he or she is entitled to return to his or her permanent grade in the classified service. If no vacancy is available in that grade, then the least senior employee so classified returns to his or her grade before being so classified.

    (3)

    Park and Recreation Board. This section 7.2(c) does not apply to the Park and Recreation Board, except to the extent that the Board so requests.

    (d)

    Civil rights commission.

    (1)

    Appointment. The City Council must provide by ordinance for the appointment of a civil rights commission, to which section 8.4(b) does not apply.

    (2)

    Jurisdiction. For the purpose of enforcing civil-rights legislation, the civil rights commission enjoys jurisdiction over each board, commission, committee, department, officer, and other agency or agent, notwithstanding anything in this charter to the contrary. No board, commission, committee, department, officer, or other agency or agent may limit the civil rights commission's jurisdiction.

    (e)

    Planning commission.

    (1)

    Commission. The commission consists of—

    (A)

    the Mayor;

    (B)

    a member elected by (but not necessarily from) the Board of County Commissioners;

    (C)

    a member elected by and from the City Council;

    (D)

    a member elected by and from the Park and Recreation Board;

    (E)

    a member elected by and from the Minneapolis Public Schools board of education;

    (F)

    a member who is a resident, appointed by the City Council; and

    (G)

    four members who are residents and are not members of any board otherwise represented on the commission, appointed under section 8.4(b).

    (2)

    Function. The commission must—

    (A)

    prepare a comprehensive plan for the City's physical development and improvement, with particular regard to public utility and convenience and the general welfare;

    (B)

    recommend to any appropriate board, commission, committee, department, or officer specific plans for public improvements, consistent with the comprehensive plan;

    (C)

    recommend to the City Council ordinances regulating the zoning of buildings and other structures with respect to their size, location, and use; and

    (D)

    perform any other duties for which an ordinance provides.

    (3)

    Plans and plats. No public office may receive or record any plan, plat, or replat of any street or other realty in the City, intended for dedication to public use or for the benefit of the fronting or adjacent property, unless the planning commission has endorsed its approval on the plan, plat, or replat. The commission's disapproval rejects, and its approval accepts, the proposed dedication on the City's behalf. But accepting such a dedication does not subject the City to any duty to maintain the dedicated property until the City has entered, used, or improved upon it.

    (4)

    Public improvements. The City may not authorize or incur debt for any public improvement, including (but not limited to) any structure of permanent character intended for ornament or commemoration, unless—

    (A)

    the planning commission approves the location and design;

    (B)

    the commission, within 30 days after receiving a plan for a proposed improvement's location and design, notifies the City Council of particular objections, and the Council approves over the commission's objections; or

    (C)

    the commission does not notify the Council of particular objections within 30 days.

    (f)

    Purchasing. The City Council may require that each officer, board, commission, or department buy goods through the purchasing department, except as this charter otherwise provides.