St. Paul council advances charter change to allow administrative citations; detailed rules to follow

Council President Jelali on Tuesday gave the St. Paul City Council its first full reading of Ordinance 25-2, a charter amendment recommended by the city’s Charter Commission that would permit the use of administrative citations as a city enforcement tool.

Jelali said the change "will unlock this basic tool to respond more effectively to violations of city ordinances" and that it is intended to help "better protecting workers from wage theft" and "better protecting renters against displacement because of unsafe conditions in their home or because of a predatory rent hike." He told colleagues the ordinance completes a Charter Commission process and only authorizes the city to use the tool in future, separate ordinances.

Council Member Jost, a lead sponsor, said the authority is "a process that's been years in the making" and described administrative citations as an enforcement mechanism other similarly sized cities already use. She and Jelali emphasized that the first-reading ordinance does not itself define how citations would be applied, and that any future ordinance using the tool would require public hearings and return to the council for adoption.

City staff and sponsors said the charter change followed a Charter Commission review that included public hearings; the commission voted 12–3 to recommend the amendment. The council held the first reading on Jan. 7; a public hearing is scheduled, and the ordinance will return for a second reading.

Council members noted implementation guardrails: each use of administrative citations (for wage enforcement, rental protections, building-code enforcement or other city laws) would have to be spelled out in separate ordinance language, include public notice and hearings, and describe enforcement and appeal procedures before citations could be imposed.

The council did not vote to adopt an implementing ordinance on Tuesday; the action taken was the first reading of the charter amendment. Staff and sponsors said additional public outreach and precise enforcement procedures will be drafted and discussed publicly before any fines or citation procedures take effect.