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WARD SYSTEM HISTORY Question: Elk River is a statutory city. Elk River has a ward system. There is no provision in statutory city law for the adoption of a system of wards. Why does Elk River have a ward system? (excerpt from the League of MN Cities Handbook) Minn. Stat. §§ 414.02, subd. 3; 414.031, subd. 4a; 414.041, subd. 5. There is no provision in statutory city law for the adoption of a system of wards. Only home rule charter cities can have wards, except that in certain incorporation, annexation, and consolidation proceedings, the Office of Strategic and Long —Range Planning (Municipal Boundary Adjustments) may include the establishment of a ward system in its order. Also, a few statutory cities that were originally irporated by legislative act, also have ward systems. We have documentation from the Minnesota Municipal Board regarding consolidation of the Town of Elk River and the City of Elk River. Those documents outline the consolidation proceedings and specifications. In the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order it outlines The City of Elk River and the Town of Elk River's proposed ward system, stating that "area representation is required to accord proper representation in the new City of Elk River because of uneven population density in different parts thereof and the existence of agricultural lands therein which are in the path of suburban development. " The order outlines that the new City of Elk River will use Optional Plan A as outlined in MN Statues and that the Council will be composed of a Mayor and four councilmen and the new City of Elk River shall be divided into four wards. I wanted to verify that this was sufficient documentation if this issue was ever challenged. I emailed the League of MN Cities the two documents and asked if the documentation is enough. Below is the response I received from Vanessa Peterson, Research Assistant with the League: Attached is a copy of the Ward memo that offers both arguments for and against ward systems and gives a little information about the system itself. It looks like from the documents you found that this memo was written before the city of Elk River consolidated with the town of Elk River and thus established a ward system. So don't be alarmed when you look at the list of cities with Ward systems in the memo and cannot find Elk River listed. The Handbook for Minnesota Cities also discusses the consolidation process and the role of Municipal Boundary Adjustments (formerly the Municipal Board.) There is a short discussion about the power of Municipal Boundary Adjustments to establish a ward system in their consolidation order on page 9 of Chapter 2. You can access a copy of this chapter on our website at: http://www.Imnc.org/handbook/ChapterO2.pdf. The discussion also includes mention of the ability of the city to abolish its ward system after a period of time, but the city is by no means required to do so. I think you have sufficient documentation of when and why the city established a ward system in the papers you sent me from the Municipal Board, should anyone question it in the future. Vanessa indicated to me that more than likely Elk River maintained the ward systems because at the time of consolidation the population was disproportionate between the city and the township.