HomeMy WebLinkAbout1988/10/10 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session MINUTES
4111 CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION
ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA
October 10, 1988
1 . Call to order
The meeting was called to order by Mayor Lyle Hanks at 8: 15 p.m.
2. Roll call
The following Council members were present at roll call : Bruce Battaglia,
Thomas Duffy, Allen Friedman, Larry Mitchell , David Strand and Lyle Hanks.
The Acting City Manager and Assistant to the City Manager were also present.
Legislative Matters
The Acting City Manager reviewed legislative priorities which staff identified
based on the issues developed - by the League of Minnesota Cities and the
Association of Metropolitan Municipalities. Following a review of the issues,
the Acting City Manager stated that $15,000 has been allocated in the budget
to retain a legislative liaison. She stated that there is benefit to identify-
ing issues which are a priority to the City prior to the selection of a
4111 legislative liaison since the Council may want to match the person and
their expertise to the prioritized issues.
Secondly she familiarized the City Council with a new program created by
the AMM that will identify three to five issues which are salient to the
metropolitan area and will involve metropolitan communities in efforts
to connect communities with the active legislative person.
The Acting City Manager brought to Council 's attention the potential of
participating in the Municipal Legislative Commission which is comprised
of 15 suburban communities. She familiarized Council with the commission' s
activities of the last legislative session which was heavily involved in
the property tax law. She noted that the cost to join the Municipal Legislative
Commission is $14,000.
Councilmember Mitchell stated that the legislative liaison position is
important and considered it a police type person or traffic control of
the legislative process. He considered it an extra when the legislative
liaison is able to accomplish something the City would like to see enacted.
Councilmember Friedman stated he agreed with Councilmember Mitchell that
the legislative liaison should be a watch type person; however, supported
the concept of subscribing to the PhillipsLegislativeService as an alternative
and to ask staff to review the almost daily updates and notify the Council
of pertinent issues.
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Councilmember Strand stated that he agreed that the service was valuable
but did not think that the service was sufficient to fulfill the City' s
needs. He stated that one of the original purposes for hiring a legislative
liaison was to free up the Assistant City Manager's time on legislative
issues and allow her to focus on other municipal operations.
The Mayor stated that the Council may want to meet with the three legislative
representatives and ask the Council whether or not they would like to set
up meetings following the elections. 11/'
Councilmember Strand said it was important to identify six key issues of
the City Council of those issues presented by staff and to meet with the
legislative liaison only on an as-needed basis.
It was the consensus of Council to schedule a meeting with the legislative
representatives and to attach the legislative priorities identified by
staff in the letters inviting the legislative representatives to meet with
the City Council . Further it was the consensus of Council to identify the
following six issues as the areas of priority for the upcoming legislative
session:
1 . Homestead credit
2. Tax increment financing
3. Modified land use planning
4. Levy limit index
5. Levy base
6. Truth in Taxation
West Hennepin Human Services sponsorship of debates
It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to direct to contact
West Hennepin Human Services as to why they are sponsoring the debates
for candidates for public office, how much money is being allocated for
the debates and to emphasize that the City' s allocation is to fund for
social services.
Next meeting
It was the consensus of Council to establish its next meeting for Octo ber
24 to discuss long-range planning issues.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
6446X) /411414Aj
Carmen J. Kaplan
Recording Secretary
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