Reader Mail: Vote of No Confidence?
A reader wrote an e-mail this afternoon to ask,
The answer, as far as I know, is no; there is no recall or impeachment process for our city under current law.
It might be possible to lobby the state legislature to introduce a bill to make this possible, but I'm totally speculating on that.
"Is it possible for the people of Maplewood to collect signatures for a Vote of No Confidence in the Mayor? Or an impeachment?"
The answer, as far as I know, is no; there is no recall or impeachment process for our city under current law.
It might be possible to lobby the state legislature to introduce a bill to make this possible, but I'm totally speculating on that.
posted by Frostbrand @ 2:24 PM
7 Comments:
At 3:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
First of all, a "vote of no confidence" in government is something that is done by the governing body. This has nothing to do with citizens or petitions.
Since local government officials do not have the authority to remove fellow local government officials, this "vote of no confidence" is sort of meaningless. Only the MN Senate and MN House have the constitutional authority to judge the qualifications of members and have the authority to expel members.
The explusion of local government officials is left up to the court. Typically you have to be convicted of a felony before explusion occurs. Rember the Dino Guerin issue. He wrote $25,000 in bad checks in the end he struck some sort of court deal where he ended up running for reelection again.
For historical purposes, the last time I know of a city council member being subjected to some sort of "vote of no confidence" resolution was in Oak Park Heights. Here is how I believe the story went. I think they called it some sort of censure resolution. The subject was Council member David Beaudet This was around 2000. Well after the vote passed on what I believe was a 4-1 vote and had the city manager's support, the citizens decided they had enough.
At the next Oak Park Heights election, this council member Beaudet ran for mayor against the long time incumbent. Two challengers ran against two incumbents. Beaudet won the mayor's seat and the two challengers took the council seats. Now Beaudet was in charge since the two other newly elected council members were supporters of his. Well we can all guess the fate of that city manager. He was outta there. Banished to Illinois.
If there is a moral to this story, it is that playing games in this fashion may backfire.
On the issue of impeachment, that's one for the US House of Representatives.
As far as recall is concerned, this exists for county officials, and for state officials. Unlike Wisconsin, you can only recall officials under very strict guidelines. Essentially you have to prove malfeasance or misfeasance in office and have the petition signatures. The percentage of signatures is pretty high. Maybe something like 25%.
People should feel more than welcome to lobby the legislature on this issue. I have always felt that recall should apply to all elected officials. The thing is though, the best you are going to get is Minnesota's version of recall. You are not going to get Wisconsin's no restriction type of recall system.
Yes the legislature can introduce bills imposing recall upon cities based upon Article 12, section 3 of the Minnesota Constitution if memory serves correct. This essentially says that the state creates local government. Therefore, the state controls local government.
Some have argued that home rule charter cities can institute recall provisions. Some charter cities do have recall. I don't believe any of these provisions have been used or tested in court. But since our city is a statutory plan b city, and not a charter city, this is not an option.
At 3:14 PM,
Frostbrand said…
Thanks, 64.131.7.123, for the extensive elaboration of my answer to the reader e-mail.
At 4:03 PM,
Anonymous said…
I loved the story on savemaplewood.com about the Civil Service Commission. Finally someone found a way to shut Dirty Diana up.
At 4:21 PM,
drawnLeftward said…
IIRC Maplewood recalled a mayor before voting to become Plan B.
At 9:22 AM,
Anonymous said…
Check out the city of St. Paul's recall provision at http://www.stpaul.gov/code/ch008.html
Maplewood would have to enact something similar, but I don't see that getting past the Gang of Three.
But let's hope for a moment that Cave does not get re-elected and the 3-2 split flip-flops, then maybe this could get passed and then Hjelle and Longrie could be put to the test via recall?
At 11:18 PM,
Anonymous said…
Home Rule Charter school 101, you can only institute provisions like they have in Saint Paul if you are a charter city. Maplewood voters choose Statutory B instead of Home Rule.
Again, all it takes is some energetic citizens to collect a few signatures and you can start the process of becoming a charter city.
Again, no council vote can authorize this that I know of, only being a charter city.
TK
At 10:17 AM,
Frostbrand said…
Well, you're the only one riding this charter city hobby horse, so let us know how that petition drive goes.
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