HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/22/2008 Council Minutest
•
1
DATE
TIME STARTED
TIME ENDED
MEMBERS PRESENT
MEMBERS ABSENT
APPROVED
CITY OF LINO LAKES
MINUTES
: September 22, 2008
. 5:31 p.m.
: (with recess) 7:40 p.m.
: Councilmember Gallup, O'Donnell,
Stoltz, Reinert and Mayor Bergeson
: None
Staff members present: Director of Administration, Dan Tesch; City Engineer, Jim
Studenski; City Planner, Paul Bengtson; Economic Development Director, Mary Alice
Divine; City Clerk, Julie Bartell
The Council agreed to meet on September 29, at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the Comprehensive
Plan.
REVIEW REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS
The following items were discussed.
Item 6A — Plan Extensions of Time — Planner Bengtson explained that the council is
being requested to consider a seven part item granting extensions to certain development
projects. The city has seven plats that have not moved forward in the process, in most
part the result of the current economic slow down that has affected development. Staff
has attached conditions to the extensions as appropriate.
Item 8A — Initiate investigation of open meeting law violation allegations — A council
member questioned why the city attorney was not present. It was clarified that the city
attorney will be present when this matter is discussed at the council meeting.
One council member suggested that the selection of counsel should be made by the one
council member who is not named in the allegation. That would be Council Member
O'Donnell. In that case, there could be no implication of improper selection.
There was a question about how this type of situation (open meeting violation) is
typically handled; it would have been preferable to have an attorney present at this
meeting to answer that question. There was discussion about whether there should be any
limitation on what the investigation covers and a suggestion that it should look at the full
scope of how many legal meetings have occurred.
The council planned to further discuss the matter with the city attorney at the council
meeting following this work session.
•
•
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION SEPTEMBER 22, 2008
APPROVED
46 CHARTER AMENDMENT COMMUNICATION PLAN
47
48 Chris Deets, Dustin Deets LLC, reported. He had provided the council with a "food for
49 thought" memorandum earlier to prepare for this brainstorming session. From that he has
50 brought options for council review.
51
52 In reviewing the document, Mr. Deets pointed out a spreadsheet of considerations that
53 lays out four options — ranging from highly strategic to maximum investment, and
54 including the estimated cost of those options. He suggested that the council must
55 consider how much time, energy and resources they want to put into communication on
56 this issue. One thought is that if a minimal or medium investment campaign will land the
57 city in the same position as in the past (a soundly defeated charter amendment), perhaps
58 only options A or D are considerations. The elements of communication within each
59 option are more fully explained within the report. The council discussed that they have
60 an obligation to provide information to voters since there is no doubt that that the
61 petitioned question will be on the ballot. The question is what is an appropriate level of
62 effort?
63
64 A council member suggested that this communication plan became harder after the past
65 week, since the issue of the allegations of an illegal meeting relative to the charter issue
66 arose and now must be a consideration. That matter is now being discussed by the public
67 and that will detract from communication efforts on the matter of the amendment.
68
69 Mr. Deets concurred, adding that there are several distractions including how people view
70 the charter (why citizens have soundly defeated proposals in the past), the open meeting
71 situation and also the economic climate. Also, there is a presidential election involved.
72 Those are things that do not necessarily favor the passage of an amendment. It is
73 important to look at the past and not repeat the same thing and expect a different result.
74 That led Mr. Deets' discussion to Option A, a situation where you can use the opportunity
75 of the upcoming election to plan for a future effort. Option A does assume that the
76 measure will be defeated but it speaks to the fact that the election is a jewel of an
77 opportunity to get those questions answered (with an exit poll) about how people feel
78 about the question, perhaps what's inhibiting change and where do they best get their
79 information.
80
81 It was noted by a council member that one of the conversations that the citizens task force
82 had was that the city should be prepared for multiple efforts. Both Options A and Option
83 C would fit into what that group envisioned.
84
85 A comment was offered that the council should make at minimum a moderate effort on
86 communication because this amendment wasn't proposed by the council but came
87 forward as a citizen petition. Also this could set the precedent for fairness for how the
88 city deals with petitioned questions that come forward in the future.
89
•
•
•
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION SEPTEMBER 22, 2008
APPROVED
90 A special edition of the city newsletter was discussed. Mr. Deets recommends that if a
91 newsletter is done it shouldn't be a passive effort - it is very important to make sure that a
92 newsletter gets to every home in enough time. Utilizing a cheaper mailing option such as
93 bulk rate may not be an option.
94
95 The council discussed the cost of mailing a newsletter. Deb Barnes, Editor of The Citizen
96 added that the paper has approached both the city (through Administrator Heitke) and the
97 Charter Commission offering to run side by side pieces on the charter amendment issue.
98 That would be a lower cost method of getting information into homes, although that
99 newspaper doesn't serve the entire city.
100
101 The council directed Mr. Deets to formulate a communication plan proposal that consists
102 of a moderate to reasonable up front information campaign combined with the exit poll in
103 case it doesn't pass. The up front campaign should include a special edition of the city
104 newsletter.
105
106 The council recessed at 6:30 p.m. to the regular council meeting.
107
108 The work session was reconvened at 7:15 p.m.
109
110 Mr. Deets and reviewed his recommendations for a communication plan based on the
111 council's direction. With the goal of educating and actively engaging people in the issue,
112 he recommends the following:
113 a) a special edition eight -page newsletter (mailing on the 16th of October); the
114 council can review the content (including balance) of the newsletter at the work session
115 on October 6;
116 b) newsletter content goes to the city Website;
117 c) key content from the newsletter will be run in an ad in the community papers;
118 d) an opinion piece that comes from the community;
119 e) an exit poll done quickly after the election by the Springsted Center for Public
120 Research, normally accomplished by phone utilizing a voter data base from either this
121 year's election or a previous election depending on what is available quickly. The exit
122 poll won't be done if the amendment passes.
123
124 Economic Development Coordinator Divine was identified as the city contact person for
125 the communication effort.
126
127 The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
128
129 These minutes were considered, corrected and approved at the regular Council meeting held on
130 October 13, 2008.
131
132
133 Julianne rtell, City C -rk
134
3