2B, Council Liaison Expectations Roles and Responsibilities (2)

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Additional background material that is attached for your review is City Code Section 220 related to Appointed Bodies (last updated on 3/12/07) and the Commissions/Committees/etc. Policy as approved on 6/25/07, It is interesting to note, that in Section 220, the Mayor is to appoint the Chair of each Commission/Committee. Discussion This issue has risen to the "goals" level based on some past Council concerns regarding the Council Liaison leading the Commissions in setting their work plan and then leading the discussion on certain items of the work plan. The concern I have heard is related to the Council Liaison pursuing their own agenda and not necessarily the agenda of the Council majority. These past concerns no longer seem to exist, but it is always good to discuss and establish guidelines for the Liaisons with the understanding that the role and responsibilities can easily change depending on the desires of the Council. There are three basic responsibilities for Liaisons which are: (1) show up! - attend the meetings; (2) participate...active or passive is the crux of the issue; and(3) report back to the Council. The main item that needs to be reviewed by the Council is the type of participation the Council wants for the Liaisons. Each of the Commissions has a different "personality" and make-up and, therefore, each Commission wants something slightly different from its Liaison. Furthermore, the role of the Liaison is somewhat different with each Commission based on the purpose of the Commission, the needs of the Commission, and to a certain degree the personality of the Liaison. Nonetheless, general guidelines for how all the Liaisons should act are appropriate. I have checked with the League of Minnesota Cities and they do not have any written examples of guidelines for Liaisons. Each city is different and has their own way of addressing the Liaison issue. There is no "one size fits all" approach for addressing the Liaison role and responsibilities issue. In fact, the Council may want to establish some overall Liaison guidelines and individual guidelines for specific Commissions. There is no doubt that the Planning Commission (as required by state law) is different than the PTRC and different than the Communications Committee, and so on. Certainly,the Liaison role on the Karth Lake Improvement District is unique. Even if you consider the Planning Commission and Karth Lake separately, the remaining four advisory Commissions/Committees are still very different, especially when there are only four active members on the EDC compared to nine on the PTRC. Another approach the Council may want to consider for some of the Commissions and Committees is to have the Council Liaison become a voting member of the advisory group. This would pretty much clear up the role and responsibility of the Liaison. I think that Nick, as the Liaison for the Communications Committee, is the closest thing that we have to a Councilmember also being an active working, voting Committee member. City Council Meeting PAAdmin\Council\Agendas&Packet Infonnation\2012\02-13-12 Wk Ses\Packet Information Page 2 of 3