12/08/2003 Council Minutes (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MINUTES DECEMBER 8, 2003 APPROVED 29 Councilmember Reinert stated the proposed guidelines are called City of Lino Lakes guidelines. 30 They just passed City Council Ethical Guidelines, and in 1999 adopted City Council Guidelines. He 331 asked if they could pass one set each year, and if so, should they identify and define them if they are 332 going to have so many. He indicated City Council Ethical Guidelines is very clear, and they removed 333 the statements that were redundant with other documents already in place. He stated it seems 334 frivolous to pass a lot of guidelines. He indicated the proposed guidelines look like legal statements, 335 so maybe they should call them that, although each of the Councilmembers have agreed to follow the 336 law, so this becomes redundant, but they could pass them anyway. He asked if they could pass 337 twenty sets of City Council guidelines. The City Attorney indicated they could if they chose to do so, 338 and could call them all the same thing if that is what they want to do. 339 340 Councilmember Carlson moved to adopt the City of Lino Lakes Guidelines in their presented form. 341 Councilmember Dahl seconded the motion. 342 343 Councilmember Carlson stated in the spirit of working together, she would consider amending the 344 guidelines to remove the first four statements, but believes the conflict of interest statement is 345 important, and it is from the League of Minnesota Cities. 346 347 Councilmember O'Donnell indicated that going back to the October 8th letter from the City Attorney 348 he has no problem leaving that statement in if there is something unique that is not covered in other 349 documents. The City Attorney stated he does not know if there was a conflict of interest statement in 350 the version sent to them for review, and the statement does not state what a conflict of interest is, so it 351 would only be what the law defines. •52 53 Councilmember Carlson called the question, motioning for the debate to end. Councilmember 354 O'Donnell seconded the motion. 355 356 Vote: 3 Ayes, 2 Nays. Motion failed. Councilmember Reinert and Mayor Bergeson opposed. 357 358 Councilmember Carlson stated she did offer a compromise, and called the question not to limit 359 discussion but to have something left of the document to vote on. 360 361 Mayor Bergeson indicated he feels it is unfortunate members of the City Council would bring forth a 362 competing set of guidelines. He stated there has been ample opportunity to bring forth discussion. 363 He indicated he will vote against these guidelines because he does not thing they were brought 364 forward in the spirit of cooperation, but to sideline the previous guidelines. He stated he will also 365 vote against because they have not had the legal vigor the others had, and he believes that is an 366 important step. He feels if they are going to consider the guidelines, that step should be done. He 367 indicated the other reason is many of these guidelines already exist in City, State or Federal law, and 368 he believes they are asking for trouble when they adopt the same thing into many documents. 369 370 Councilmember Reinert indicated he, too, will vote against the guidelines for a lot of the same 371 reasons. He feels they are redundant, and have all been covered before. He believes they were 372 submitted in competition, and serve no purpose. He stated it would also be appropriate to include 373 with these guidelines to have milk with cookies; stop and smell the roses; and hug your children. 374 • 8