04/06/2005 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION APRIL 6, 2005 APPROVED 411 1 2 ROAD RECONSTRUCTION COMMUNICATION PLAN — GORDON HEITKE 3 4 City Administrator Heitke stated if the City Council conducts a referendum on a street 5 reconstruction project this year, a plan for providing information to the public in order for 6 voters to make an informed decision is needed. Staff is recommending the Council 7 consider engaging the services of a qualified consultant to design and implement the 8 public information program. This recommendation is being made because of the 9 following: 10 11 1. Criticism of past in-house public information efforts. 12 2. Perception by some that City staff is opposed to requirements within the 13 Charter, therefore may not be viewed as being objective and impartial. 14 3. Current workload of existing City staff. 15 16 City Administrator Heitke noted the need for a public communication program was 17 briefly discussed with Springsted Inc. during the preparation of the Pavement 18 Management Financing Report. They have indicated an interest in serving in a 19 consulting role to prepare and implement a public information program. 20 21 City Administrator Heitke stated staff is requesting direction from the Council as to 22 whether: 1) a consultant can be used to prepare and implement a public information 23 program, and 2) it wishes to receive a specific proposal for services from Springsted Inc. • 24 or another consultant(s). 25 26 The Council indicated they might consider a proposal from Springsted for consulting 27 services on a communication plan after the April 14, 2005 joint meeting with the Charter 28 Commission. 29 30 CHARTER COMMISSION REQUEST — GORDON HEITKE 31 32 City Administrator Heitke stated on May 10, 2004 and June 28, 2004 the City Council 33 approved expenditures for legal services related to the City Charter. Since that time, the 34 Charter Commission has requested that these types of expenditures not be allocated to the 35 Charter Commission area of the City budget since they were not initiated or approved by 36 the Charter Commission. It has been suggested that it was "wrong" for the expenses to 37 be accounted for in the manner they were. The staff and Council should take very 38 seriously any suggestion of improper accounting of public funds, therefore, staff has 39 consulted with the City Auditor and requested an opinion on the appropriateness of the 40 accounting of these expenditures. He referred to a copy of the City Auditor's opinion 41 attached to the staff report regarding this issue. 42 43 City Administrator Heitke advised that following further correspondence with Mike 44 Trehus, the Chairman of the Charter Commission, this issue remains unresolved. The 45 Charter Commission's request is to modify the 2004 financial records to remove these 46 expenditures and to not have staff -initiated expenses or those not approved by the Charter . 47 48 Commission be accounted for in a manner that would occur under a heading of "Charter Commission". Since the Council approved these expenditures, and according to the City