A series of amendments have been drafted for the electric door ordinance that Mandan voters passed on Nov. 4. They will be brought before the Mandan City Commission at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Mandan City Hall.

As it stands, the Nov. 4 initiated measure states that: "Installation of electric handicap accessible entrance doors are required on every building open to the public that has received public funds in any form."

Susan Beehler, a co-sponsor of the initiative, said she has requested an opinion from the attorney general's office on whether a Thursday meeting among city officials violated the state's open meeting laws.

City Administrator Jim Neubauer said the amendments were drafted by City Attorney Malcolm Brown.

Brown discussed the revisions with Neubauer, Commissioner Tom Jackson, Mayor Tim Helbling and Business Development Director Ellen Huber on Thursday.

Revisions to be discussed are:

- Restatement of the ordinance: Every building open to public use that has received the benefit of public funds from the city of Mandan shall provide for the installation of an automatic door for at least one main entrance of the building.

- "Automatic door" means a door equipped with a power-operated mechanism and controls that open and close the door automatically upon the receipt of a momentary actuating signal.

- "Public use" describes interior or exterior rooms or spaces that are regularly made available to the general public.

- "Public funds" mean the use of Mandan-authorized and approved tax increment financing, storefront improvement funds, renaissance zone participation and a five-year property tax exemption.

- This ordinance shall apply to building projects that have applied for and received public funds subsequent to Nov. 14, 2008.

- Automatic doors are not required if the installation of an automatic door would be technically infeasible, or if there exists other pre-existing accessibility barriers that cannot be reasonably remedied or readily achievable at reasonable cost.

"It totally changes the wording," Beehler said. She said the city's version calls it an "automatic door" when the ordinance approved by voters specified an "electric door." She said automatic doors are more expensive, which was not the intention of the sponsors.

"They cut and pasted the ADA law that businesses don't have to comply if it creates a hardship," Beehler said. "They are trying to devoid the initiative so there is no compliance to it."

She said sponsors did not intend to make a business do $1 million in ADA renovations to meet the new city ordinance, only enough to install a door opener or a button to open the door.

Nor does the new law create a penalty for anybody not in compliance, Beehler said. "They totally rewrote it."

"It was illegal," Beehler said of Thursday's meeting with city officials.

A pamphlet provided by the attorney general's office defines "meeting" as any gathering of a quorum of the members of the governing body of a public entity regarding public business.

There are five members on the Mandan City Commission and only two were present at Thursday's meeting - Helbling and Jackson.

Neubauer said the goal of Thursday's meeting only was to clarify the meaning of the ordinance. "Our intent was to follow through on the intention of the voters. There are tons of questions out there," Neubauer said.

Neubauer said Jackson explained to Beehler the changes after the city officials met.

With only two commissioners present, he said the Thursday discussion did not constitute a quorum.

(Reach reporter LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leann.eckroth@;bismarcktribune.com.)