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• FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES _4_ May 11, 2005 Proposals for recodification of Falcon Hei hts Cites (continued) Mr. Lageson said he agrees with the City Attorney that the City won't get anything more than what the City puts into it. What we give them is what we are going to get back. An electronic copy is an absolute must. The City can put it on its own web site. There are lots of search engines. He asked if the City Attorney shouldn't be tracking and keeping things in line. He thought that was one of their roles. Once the City code is solid, it should be very straightforward to keep it consistent. City Attorney Knutson said that when his office is asked to amend a provision of the ordinance, they certainly look to eliminate inconsistencies. Because of cost, the City has never asked him to audit the City code. Mayor Gehrz said that State laws change. The whole thing needs to be redone cover to cover and the City can't afford to have the City Attorney do this. This is what these companies do. She is very interested in saving staff time in the future by having the City code on the web and keeping it current. • Ms. Jones said these companies provide a very technical service. No one on staff is qualified to do this. The legal copy, the final authority, is actually the printed copy. The web copy is not the last word, the printed copy is. The present City code is not on the web, except for the sign ordinance. The City code can be hosted on the City web site or on the company's web site. Council member Lamb said two things need to be addressed: One is the responsibility for updates. The Council needs to direct staff to make a recommendation regarding responsibility for updates. One option is to buy the update service. Or, the Council can direct the City Attorney or staff to be responsible. If the Council doesn't address updating, six months from now the City will be back with a code that potentially doesn't match. The Council can ask staff to research the issue and come back with a recommendation regarding the management of updates. The Council has committed to making the City code electronically accessible. We don't know if we want to host it ourselves or through one of the providers. Direct staff to look at electronic access in terms of cost, efficiency, timeliness and accuracy. His personal bias is to go with the vendor's proposal. Pay the fee. We spend $500 on the supplemental service. That is a very small percentage if it keeps us from having to redo the whole thing. The base fee for recodification will be about $8,000 and maintenance costs will be $400-$500 a year. Lamb moved that staff be authorized to contract with the Municipal Code Corporation for recodification of the Falcon Heights City Code for the base cost of $7,350.00, and purchase of the supplemental service from them. Staff is directed to look at the options and costs regarding electronic search and retrieval, and location of the code on the Internet, keeping in mind cost, efficiency, timeliness and accuracy, and bring this information back to the May 25, 2005 Council meeting. The motion was unanimously approved. 4