2006 Minnesota Statutes

458A.03 COMMISSION; ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION.
    Subdivision 1. Organization; officers; meetings; seal. Within 90 days after July 1, 1969, or
as soon as practicable after the selection and qualification of a majority of the first members of the
commission, they shall meet to organize the commission at the call of a majority of the members,
upon seven days' notice by certified mail to all those who have qualified, at a time and place within
the area designated in the notice. A majority of the commissioners appointed shall constitute a
quorum at that meeting and all other meetings of the commission. At that meeting the commission
shall elect a chair from its membership, a vice-chair, a secretary, and a treasurer, which latter two
officers shall serve at the pleasure of the commission, to serve until the regular monthly meeting
of the commission to be held in the month of July next following or until their successors are
elected and have qualified. At that regular monthly meeting and at the regular meeting held in the
month of July in alternate years thereafter the commission shall elect successors to those officers
to serve for two years or until their successors are elected and have qualified. The commission
shall hold a regular meeting at least once in each month at a time and place within the area
designated by the commission. Special meetings may be held as directed by the commission or
at the call of the chair or any two commissioners upon at least seven days' notice by mail to all
commissioners. All meetings of the commission shall be open to the public. Any authorized
action may be taken by the commission upon the vote of a majority of those members present at
any meeting lawfully convened. The commission may adopt a seal, which shall be officially and
judicially noticed, to authenticate instruments executed by its authority, but omission of the seal
shall not affect the validity of any instrument. The chair, vice-chair, treasurer, and secretary shall
have the powers and duties usually incident to their respective offices and such others as may be
prescribed for or delegated to them by the commission or as may be otherwise provided by law.
    Subd. 2. Rules. The commission may prescribe and promulgate rules as it deems necessary
or expedient in furtherance of the purposes of sections 458A.01 to 458A.15 upon like procedure
and with like force and effect as provided for state agencies by chapter 14.
    Subd. 3. Commissioner of finance to be treasurer; fiscal year. The commissioner
of finance shall receive, hold, disburse, invest, and otherwise dispose of all moneys of the
commission as provided by law. Except as otherwise expressly provided, the commissioner of
finance shall disburse moneys of the commission only as directed by the commission or by any of
its officers thereto authorized by the commission. The fiscal year of the commission ending June
30, 1976 shall be extended to September 30, 1976. Thereafter the fiscal year of the commission
shall be from October 1 to September 30.
    Subd. 4. Commissioners; per diem and expenses. A commissioner shall receive no per
diem for services except as hereinafter provided, but shall be reimbursed for actual and necessary
expenses incurred in the performance of duties. Each commissioner shall be paid such sum as the
commission by resolution may determine, by public hearing for each day or part thereof spent
in attending meetings of the commission; provided, that no commissioner shall receive more
than $2,500 for such attendance during the first 12 months beginning with and following the
organization meeting, nor more than $1,600 in any one calendar year thereafter. The secretary
and the treasurer shall receive such per diem as the commission may determine, which may be in
addition to their per diem as a commissioner if they are such.
    Subd. 5. Executive director; other appointees. The commission may appoint an executive
director. The executive director shall not be under civil service, and the commission shall
prescribe the terms of employment as to compensation, tenure, retirement, and other appropriate
conditions, including, without limitation, any conditions applicable by law to public employees
in the unclassified service so far as the commission shall so determine. The executive director
shall be subject to removal by the commission at any time. The executive director, if appointed,
shall be the chief administrative officer of the commission and shall have the powers and
duties incident thereto and such others as the commission may prescribe in furtherance of the
provisions of sections 458A.01 to 458A.15, including such powers of the commission as it may
see fit to delegate except those expressly required by law to be exercised by the commission.
The commission may appoint or employ such other regular officers and employees as it deems
necessary in furtherance of the purposes of sections 458A.01 to 458A.15 and prescribe their
terms of employment, powers, and duties, subject to applicable civil service laws and other
laws relating to public employees except as otherwise expressly provided. In addition thereto
the commission may engage by contract, upon such terms as it may see fit, attorneys, engineers,
consultants, agents, and other professionally qualified persons for such special purposes as the
commission deems necessary in furtherance of the purposes of sections 458A.01 to 458A.15,
subject to removal at the pleasure of the commission.
    Subd. 6. Benefits. The commission is a governmental subdivision as that term is used
in section 353.01, subdivision 6, but this subdivision shall not reduce the obligations of the
commission as set forth elsewhere in sections 458A.01 to 458A.15.
    Subd. 7. Bonds of officers and employees. The commission may require bonds of any of its
officers or employees conditioned as required by law for the bonds of public officers and with
such further provisions as the commission may determine, with corporate surety for which the
premiums shall be paid out of the funds of the commission.
    Subd. 8. Legal status; general powers. The transit area, with the commission as its
governing body, shall be a public corporation and a political subdivision of the state. All the
powers vested and obligations or duties imposed upon the commission and acts of the commission
by sections 458A.01 to 458A.15 shall be deemed to be those of the transit area wherever
necessary or appropriate, and shall be exercised, performed, and discharged in behalf of the area
by the commission in its name as a public corporation and with like force and effect as if done in
the name of the area, and for all such purposes, the commission shall have the same status and
powers as the area. The chair and secretary of the commission shall have such powers as are
delegated to them by the commission. The commission may sue and be sued and may enter into
contracts which may be necessary or proper.
The commission may operate paratransit services, as defined in section 174.22, subdivision
6 , and may exercise such other powers conferred upon it by sections 458A.01 to 458A.15,
including the power to acquire property, as may be necessary and proper to operation of such
services or the application for and receipt of such assistance.
Except as otherwise provided, the commission may, within the transit area, acquire by
purchase, lease, gift, or condemnation proceedings any real or personal property, franchises,
easements, or other rights which may be necessary or proper and may acquire real property in
such manner for use as terminal facilities, maintenance and garage facilities, ramps, parking areas
and other facilities useful for or related to any public transit system. The commission shall have
power to acquire by purchase, lease, or gift all or any part of the plant, equipment, shares of stock,
property, real, personal, or mixed, rights in property, reserve funds, special funds, franchises,
licenses, patents, permits and papers, documents and records belonging to any operator of a
public transit system within the area, and to lease property and to transfer or convey by sale or
otherwise any property or rights to others, or to exchange the same for other property or rights
which are useful for its purposes, and may in connection therewith assume any or all liabilities
of any operator of a public transit system. The commission, without limitation, may acquire or
construct and equip terminal facilities, maintenance and garage facilities, ramps, transit lanes
or rights-of-way, parking areas and other facilities useful for or related to any public transit
system and may hold, use, improve, operate, maintain, lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of any
of its property to others and may contract with any operator or other person for the use by any
such operator or person of any such property or facilities under its control. The commission
shall not acquire any existing public transit system or any part thereof by condemnation. In the
determination of the fair value of the existing public transit system, there shall not be included
any value attributable to expenditures for improvements by the transit commission.
The commission may accept gifts, grants, or loans of money or other property from the
United States, the state, or any person or entity for such purposes, may enter into any agreement
required in connection therewith, may comply with any federal or state laws or regulations
applicable thereto, and may hold, use, and dispose of such money or property in accordance with
the terms of the gift, grant, loan, or agreement relating thereto. The commission may establish
an executive committee, a finance committee, and such other committees of its members as it
deems necessary or proper in furtherance of the provisions of sections 458A.01 to 458A.15, and
may authorize them to exercise in the intervals between commission meetings any powers of the
commission except those expressly required by law to be exercised by the commission.
    Subd. 8a. Nontransit area service contracts. The commission may provide public transit
service outside the transit area by contractual arrangement with individuals, corporations or
units of government.
    Subd. 9. Management contracts. Notwithstanding any of the other provisions of sections
458A.01 to 458A.15, the commission shall have powers, in lieu of directly operating any public
transit system, or any part thereof, to enter into management contracts with any persons, firms, or
corporations for the management of said system for such period or periods of time, and under
such compensation and other terms and conditions as shall be deemed advisable and proper by the
commission and such persons, firms, or corporations.
Such persons, firms, or corporations entering into management contracts with the
commission may employ necessary personnel for the operation and maintenance of said system as
well as perform consulting and supervisory services for the commission. An incentive fee may
be included in any management contract that is negotiated. The employees of any public transit
system operated pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision shall, in case of any dispute arising
under any existing or new collective bargaining agreement relating to the terms or conditions of
their employment, have the right, for the purpose of resolving such dispute, either to engage in a
concerted refusal to work or to invoke the processes of final and binding arbitration as provided
by chapter 572, subject to any applicable provisions of the agreement not inconsistent with law.
History: 1969 c 1134 s 3; 1971 c 546 s 1-4; 1976 c 288 s 2,3; 1978 c 674 s 60; 1978 c 761 s
1-3; 1979 c 50 s 57; 1982 c 424 s 130; 1985 c 248 s 70; 1986 c 444; 1987 c 384 art 2 s 93; 1995 c
233 art 2 s 56; 1997 c 187 art 5 s 32; 2003 c 112 art 2 s 50