10/06/2008 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION October 6, 2008 APPROVED 44 The council members submitted individual ballot sheets relative to selection of a city 45 attorney for civil services from the four finalists of the request for proposals (RFP) 46 process. The results of the balloting: 47 48 First — Ratwick, Roszak, & Maloney, P.A. 49 Second — Kenney & Graven; 50 Third — Campbell Knutson 51 Fourth — Hawkins & Baumgartner 52 53 The council directed staff to prepare a contract for consideration to begin services on 54 January 1, 2009. 55 56 CHARTER AMENDMENT COMMUNICATION PLAN 57 58 Communications consultant Chris Deets, Dustin Deets LLC reported. Mr. Deets first 59 indicated that he has made three requests to the charter commission for input and has 60 received nothing. Mr. Deets then presented the council with the proposed newsletter. 61 The piece included a section entitled "Mayor's Corner" and the council discussed the 62 appropriateness of having one council member represented in that manner. They'd prefer 63 that the section be entitled "City Council" and include no picture. 64 65 When looking at the page indicating how the ballot will appear, it was suggested by a 66 council member that the newsletter include a clear phrase of what voting "no" means and 67 what voting "yes" means. 68 69 A council member suggested that the most important point of the information campaign 70 is "what are we going to vote on" and that should be up front. There was discussion 71 about whether or not the question is "how will this be governed" or "how are roads 72 improved". 73 74 The charter commission should give an answer on their desire to be included. It is a 75 timing issue. 76 77 Mr. Deets expects to hear council comments by the next Thursday morning. The council 78 should send a request to the charter commission offering them the opportunity to submit 79 something for the newsletter (with same deadline as council members). 80 81 The newsletter would go onto the city Web site at the same time it is released. For 82 publishing in area newspapers, the council should decide on ad size and also on how an 83 opinion piece would be handled. It was suggested by a council member that a whole 84 page of the newspaper is excessive and could give the wrong impression. The council 85 concurred that a half page is preferred. 86 87 On the question of the charter commission's request for additional funding in 2008, the 88 council will consider separately the request of additional funding for communication 2