11/02/2009 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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b) 5 members, in which case at least 2 must be members of the city council. c) 7 members, in which case at least 2 must be members of the city council. Further, an enabling resolution may provide that more than the minimum required council members serve as commissioners, or it may provide that the entire board is made up of city council members, as is the case in Lino Lakes. The most likely options for amending the makeup of the EDA are: 1. Add 2 citizens, to make it a 7- member board (including the full council) 2. Keep the board size at 5, but remove 1 or 2 council members, replacing them with citizen appointees, but keeping council members in the majority. 3. Increase the size to 7, but remove 1 council member - -so it is made up of 4 council members and 3 citizens, again a council majority. 4. There are also models that make the elected officials not the majority. They would be: keeping the board at 5 but remove 3 council members; increasing the board to 7 and remove 2 or 3 council members (so it's 4 citizens and 3 council, or 5 citizens and 2 council). If this model is used the enabling resolution usually requires that virtually every action of the EDA must come back to the council for approval. 5. Appoint non - voting representative(s) of EDAC to participate on the EDA. If the city decides to reduce the number of council members on the EDA, the individual members who leave the board must do so voluntarily. There is an argument that if a majority of the council votes to change the EDA board makeup, and a minority council member doesn't want to leave the EDA board, that member might claim that he or she is being removed from the EDA without cause. The general rule is that the terms of appointed citizens on the EDA are 6 years, and the terms of council- members are the same as their term on the council. When you have a mixture of council and citizens, there are rules that say initial citizen appointees have staggered terms. That is a detail that can get worked out once you decide what your board makeup will be. According to Mr. Bubul, there are pros and cons to having citizen members on your EDA. The benefit of getting appointed citizens on the EDA is that they can bring additional knowledge and expertise, and can demonstrate to the community that there is citizen buy -in on projects. They can help the city council sell the benefits of a project to the community. On the other hand, with the addition of appointed members, the EDA can develop different agendas from the council (which, in some cities, has lead to a council decision to take over the EDA again). Council would need to determine if it was going to select its EDA members from EDAC appointments only, or open the selection up to the citizens at large, as it does with other appointed positions. Also, having the Council serve as the EDA makes the development process a bit more efficient since you don't •