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Item No: 2 Meeting Date: Feb 1, 2010 Type of Business: Work Session Administrator Review : ____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, Clerk - Administrator Item Title/Subject: Review Reimbursement Request from Charlie Hall Introduction: Charlie Hall, owner of the Mermaid, located at 2200 County Highway 10, approached the current City Council in 2009 asking to be reimbursed for a $10,000 check he asserts had been provided to the City in 1977 in association with the expansion of his business and never returned. Mr. Hall made a similar request a few years ago, and he indicates he has appeared before many City Councils subsequent to his building expansion with the same request. Subsequent to his appearance before the Council last year, Mr. Hall submitted a detailed data practice request (attached) which resulted in many hours of staff time and a consultation with the City attorney, with the ultimate outcome of not finding any documentation referencing such a payment. Discussion: While no one is questioning Mr. Hall’s honesty or integrity, none of our archival research (conducted multiple times at the request of Mr. Hall) has revealed any verification that the City ever required such a deposit be made of Mr. Hall. Had the City made such a request, it would have been memorialized in a resolution or development agreement associated with the project. We have examined the 1977 accounts ledgers (revenues and expenditures) at Mr. Hall’s request, plus Council minutes, resolutions, development agreements, planning case files, address files, Laserfished data and microfilmed data, none of which referenced the alleged $10,000 deposit. The only reference staff could ascertain to any kind of deposit or escrow was a $15,000 bond required by Development Agreement 78-13. The $15,000 bond was released by the City at the request of Daniel Hall in 1984. At the December 14, 2009 City Council meeting, Mr. Hall again appeared before the Council with the same request. Mayor Flaherty indicated the issue could be brought back at a future work session for review and discussion. Subsequent to the data practices request and the December 14th Council meeting, I asked Kennedy & Graven to prepare an opinion for the Council’s benefit. The opinion is attached. Recommendation: Staff recommends that the Council take no action with regard to Mr. Hall’s request, in that there is no documentation on file to suggest the City required Mr. Hall to provide a $10,000 check in conjunction with his building expansion project or even accepted such a check. Given the amount of time that has lapsed since the check was allegedly provided to the City (thirty-plus years ago) the City cannot be expected to consent to Mr. Hall’s demand for reimbursement, regardless of the absence of documentation.