Havre again wants to put charter proposal to the voters

The Havre City Council Ordinance Committee met Monday and discussed Havre changing to a charter form of government.

The difference between self-governing powers and general powers is that  "municipal government may acquire self-government powers only with the approval of a majority of the municipal electors voting on the question," Montana State University Extension handbook says.

It says the question may be presented to the local electorate directly as a ballot proposal to adopt a municipal charter, which, if approved by the voters, automatically confers self-government powers upon the municipality.

A self-governing community can enact more proposals than a general government community, basically able to take actions as long as they are not prohibited by state law.

Ordinance Committee Member Lindsey Ratliff said the last time the ordinance committee proposed a charter was in 2016.

Ordinance Committee Chair Andrew Brekke provided a proposed document that the study commission had proposed in the last election.

"There are various pieces that are the same and that are consistent with other charters," he said. "The main difference is Article 2 and Article 3."

The structure of the charter is outlined in statute, he said.

"You have to have why you are doing it, so that's the preamble section, it has to have the structure of the powers and establish what the powers are even if they are general government powers, so it basically is a re-interpretation of general government powers with the self-governing title," he said. "... The meat of it then would be Article 2, which is the legislative branch."

Article 3 is the executive branch so that is the office of the mayor, he added.

Article 4 is the judicial branch city court; Article 5 department of structure; Article 6 general provisions and Article 7 transition provisions.

"You want to make it as simple and straightforward as possible," Brekke said.

Ratliff said if they get this on the ballot they would like to hold meetings to educate the public to get them informed on what changing to a charter form of government means.

Brekke said he was approached by the Board of Realtors, who are interested in providing funds for the education purpose to the public.

"The Local Board of Realtors and the State Board of Realtors thinks this is an important thing for Havre," he said. "They just think that this is the next step of progress for the city of Havre. It's something that needs to happen. They don't have a specific agenda, they think it's important for Havre to do that."

No specific amount of funding was discussed, Brekke added.

He said 59 percent of cities and towns in Montana are charter governments.

Ordinance Committee member Karen Swenson said, in general, the city government would not do anything different than what it is currently doing.

This is good for the city of Havre, she said.

There aren't any negatives to doing a charter, Brekke said.

The city is joining the pack with the other cities, he said.

He said if someone is worried about the city changing into its form of government, a list will be provided, at a later date, of all the bigger and smaller cities that are in a charter form government. 

"Not one municipality or county that has ever adopted a charter has ever rescinded in the history of the state of Montana," he said. "I think that's a testament right there, they've amended it, but they've never gone back to general government powers."

Ratliff said she just wants to make sure the voters have an understanding of what it is and why they are doing it.

"Let the public come in and ask questions," she said.

The proposed document will go to the city attorney which will be transcribed into a resolution to go before the council at the next City Council meeting, July 6 then if approved the language will go on the November ballot for the voters.

If approved by the voters, the Charter will go into effect Jan. 1.