2007 Minnesota Statutes

414.041 CONSOLIDATION OF MUNICIPALITIES.
    Subdivision 1. Initiating the proceeding. (a) Two or more municipalities may be the
subject of a single proceeding provided that each municipality abuts at least one of the included
municipalities.
(b) The proceeding shall be initiated in one of the following ways:
(1) submitting to the director a resolution of the city council of each affected municipality;
(2) submitting to the director a petition signed by a number of residents eligible to vote
equivalent to five percent or more of the resident voters of a municipality who voted for governor
at the last general election; or
(3) by the director.
(c) The petition or resolution shall set forth the following information about each included
municipality: name, description of boundaries, the reasons for requesting the consolidation and
the names of all parties entitled to mailed notice under section 414.09.
(d) The party initiating the proceeding shall serve copies of the petition or resolution on
all of the included municipalities.
    Subd. 2. Consolidation commission. Upon receipt of a petition or a resolution requesting
consolidation or upon the director's own motion, the director shall appoint a consolidation
commission from a list of ten candidates submitted by each affected city council. The commission
shall be composed of not fewer than five members from each affected municipality. From a
separate list of three persons submitted by each affected city council, the director shall appoint
a commission chair who is not a resident of an affected municipality but who resides in an
affected county.
No person is disqualified from serving on a consolidation commission by reason of holding
other elected or appointed office. Consolidation commission members shall hold office until a
consolidation report has been issued by the commission. The director shall fill vacancies in the
commission by appointment. The consolidation commission shall make rules with reference to
its operation and procedures including quorum requirements with reference to its operations
and procedures.
    Subd. 3. Commission's hearing and report. (a) The consolidation commission shall
conduct hearings regarding the proposed consolidation.
(b) The hearings shall include, but are not limited to, the following subjects:
(1) the contents of any city charter for the proposed consolidated city or the form of
government of the proposed consolidated city;
(2) analysis of whether a ward system shall be included in the form of government of the
proposed consolidated city; and
(3) each factor considered by the director under section 414.02, subdivision 3.
(c) Based on these factors and upon other matters which come before the consolidation
commission, the commission shall issue a report to the director with findings and recommendations
within two years from the date of the director's initial appointment of the commission.
    Subd. 4. Director's hearing and notice. Upon receipt of the commission's report, the
director shall designate a time and a place for a hearing in accordance with section 414.09.
    Subd. 5. Relevant factors, order. (a) In arriving at a decision, the director shall consider
the factors in section 414.02, subdivision 3.
(b) The director shall consider and may accept, amend, return to the commission for
amendment or further study, or reject the commission's findings and recommendations based upon
the director's written determination of what is in the best interests of the affected municipalities.
(c) The director shall order the consolidation on finding that consolidation will be for the
best interests of the municipalities. In all cases, the director shall set forth the factors which are
the basis for the decision.
(d) If the director orders consolidation, the order shall provide for election of new municipal
officers in accordance with section 414.09.
(e) If the most populous of the included municipalities is a statutory city, the new
municipality shall be a statutory city and the plan of government shall be Optional Plan A,
provided that an alternate plan may be adopted pursuant to section 412.551, at any time. If the
most populous of the included municipalities is a home rule charter city or organized under a
statute other than chapter 412, the new municipality shall be governed by its home rule charter
or the statutory form under which it is governed except that any ward system for the election of
council members shall be inoperable.
(f) If the commission's findings and recommendations include a proposed home rule charter
for the new municipality, the order may combine the issue of the adoption of the charter and the
vote on approval of the order for consolidation into one question on the ballot, and shall submit it
in a special or general election as provided in section 410.10.
(g) The ordinances of all of the included municipalities shall continue in effect within their
former boundaries until repealed by the governing body of the new municipality.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the order may establish a
ward system in the new municipality, in which event the order shall establish not less than three
nor more than seven wards, each of which shall elect one council member. When more than two
years have elapsed after consolidation, the governing body may, by a four-fifths vote, abolish
the ward system.
(i) The new municipality shall assume the name of the most populous municipality unless
previous to the election another name is chosen by joint resolution of a majority of the included
municipalities or by the consolidation commission.
(j) The number of license privileges existing in the included municipalities prior to
consolidation and pursuant to state law shall not be diminished as a result of the consolidation.
(k) If the consolidation is denied or defeated in a referendum, no proceeding for the
consolidation of the same municipalities may be initiated within two years from the date of
the order unless authorized by the director.
    Subd. 6. Final approval; petition; referenda. (a) If the consolidation was initiated by a
petition of the resident voters of a municipality, the order for consolidation shall be final upon
approval by resolution of the city councils in each of the affected municipalities unless ten percent
or more of the resident voters of an affected municipality who voted for governor at the last
general election petition the city council for a referendum on the consolidation. The petition must
be submitted within 90 days of the final date of the order or the date of final approval of the
order by the city councils, whichever is later.
(b) Upon receipt and verification of the petition, the director shall order the municipalities to
conduct separate referenda at a general or special election in each municipality on the same day,
and the referenda shall be held within six months of the receipt of the petition.
(c) Costs of the respective referenda shall be borne by the respective municipality. A majority
of those voting in each city must approve the proposed consolidation. The results of the referenda
shall be certified to the director by the chief election judge within ten days after the referenda. The
director shall upon receipt of the certificate notify all parties of the election results.
(d) If the consolidation was initiated by a city council resolution of each affected
municipality, the order for consolidation shall be final unless ten percent or more of the resident
voters of an affected municipality petition for a referendum as provided in paragraph (a).
(e) If the consolidation was initiated by the director, no director's consolidation order
involving existing municipalities shall become effective unless adopted by the council of each
affected municipality by a majority vote and unless the consolidation order is approved by the
qualified voters of the affected municipalities at a general or special election set according to
law. The form of the ballot shall be fixed by the director; and, if a majority of the votes cast on
the question in each municipality are in favor of its adoption, the order shall become effective
as provided herein.
(f) Notwithstanding a disapproval of the order for consolidation by a city council of
an affected municipality required to approve the order in paragraph (a) or (e), the order for
consolidation shall nevertheless be deemed approved by that city council if ten percent or more of
the resident voters of that municipality who voted for governor at the last general election petition
the city council for a referendum on the consolidation as provided in paragraph (a), and a majority
of those voting in that municipality approve the order for consolidation.
    Subd. 7. Differential taxation for up to five years. Where one municipality is receiving
substantially fewer municipal services, the director may provide that the tax rate of the
municipality shall be increased in substantially equal proportions over a period of not more than
five years to equality with the tax rate in the remainder of the new municipality. The period
shall be determined by the director on the basis of the period reasonably required to provide
substantially equal municipal services.
    Subd. 8. Effective date of consolidation. The consolidation shall be effective upon the
election and qualification of new municipal officers, or at such later date as set by the order.
History: 1969 c 1146 s 13; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1973 c 621 s 5; 1975 c 271 s 6; 1978 c
705 s 23; 1979 c 287 s 1; 1986 c 444; 1989 c 277 art 4 s 47; 1996 c 303 s 15,16; 2002 c 223 s
16; 2004 c 293 art 2 s 47