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LAKE ELMO COUNCIL MEETING, MAY 17, 1983 D R A F T -7- For 6 7 83 ll, COUNCTZ . REPORTS Approval B,' Coun'cJll'or', Dunn r� D'�'scu's's\,R\ich'ar'd,.'Ostlund' ,Letterof 5/'5/"8'3' to City Councillor Dunn made the following comments and motion: --Letter represents Mr. Ostlunds opinion and nothing more. --Council has an obligation to protect the right of all parties in this matter, that is, our silence or lAck. of response implies agreement with the Ostlund letter, MIS/ Dunn/'Morgan directing the City Administrator to inform Willis Hutchinson, the C&NW Railroad and its attorney, Lundquist & Vennum, that the City is awaiting a court decision on the validity or invalidity of Ordinance 7949 and that neither the C&NW Railroad nor Willis Hutchinson should take any further steps or incur any further liabilities in reliance upon the validity oif(,said ordinance until a court determination has been made. Also, the City should take no further action in this matter until we receive a court decision, Discussion: -Mazzara - requested a legal opinion from the City Attorney, -Eder - would need a motion for an executive session for legal advice, -Morgan - have asked for legal advice and everytime we have gotten legal advice we have not followed i_t, This letter implies that the original ordinance, which has caused all the legal advice, was an action. .If we don't take exception to that, it is an indication that we would incur liability if anything happens from this point. We all agreed we were going to accept legal opinion and we did't last time. All this motion is saying is 'put it on the record that we are doing nothing and nothing is happening until we get a legal opinion. -Eder - very touchy in terms of the fact that we started legal action as a City. -Fraser - have no desire to seek legal opinion. Don't agree with the judgement that Councillor Dunn has expressed, -Mazzara - would like to have legal counsel - don't think would like to go into private council. Seems what Bruce is saying is not totally irrelavent. Although given the fact we are in a judicial situation - don•".t know the ramifications and would like to know - don°t know if we have to go into private session to find this out, -Eder - because of the legal situation, any strategy or anything, has to be handled in a lawyer/client relationship. We cannot share it with anyone else. -Morgan - believe there has to be some response to this letter. -Dunn - just saying we are going to do nothing until the court clarifies this matter, and askiAg_them to do nothing also. Don't know how this can cause trouble. Do not know what is so sacred about the Executive Session. Nothing was said in there that is secret. Have a tape of the session - just about ready to get it typed up and hang it in Hagbergs, Post Office, every- where - there is nothing secret or confidential about it, -Eder- disagree with this position - at some,pont this can be revealed, but, I think, that it is no different than any normal client/'lawyer relationship. -Dunn - all I am saying is to tell them we are going to do nothing because what they are saying is not true,