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AGENDA ITEM <br /> <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />DATE: September 16, 2013 <br /> <br /> <br />TO:Honorable Mayor and City Council Members <br /> <br /> <br />FROM: Patrick Klaers, City Administrator <br /> <br /> <br />SUBJECT: Policy on Newsletter Articles <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Background <br /> <br />One of the original goals given to me by the City Council in mid 2011 dealt with the City <br />newsletter. Specifically, the Council wanted to talk about developing a City newsletter <br />policy on what is allowed/not allowed in the articles written by the Mayor and City <br />Council. <br /> <br />Discussion <br /> <br />In looking for some guidance on developing a City newsletter policy, I checked with the <br />League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) research department and with some of our <br />neighboring communities. Unfortunately, I did not find anything on file with the LMC or <br />with our neighbors that could help us in our discussion. <br /> <br />Once you put some guidelines on paper and adopt a policy, then you have to enforce the <br />policy. You also want to be careful about having a policy that can be open to <br />interpretation and typically, as soon as a policy is adopted, an exception or something not <br />considered comes up. In some respects the Council may be better served just having an <br />informal policy where common sense is the main guide. <br /> <br />If the Council wants to establish a City newsletter policy, it can be restricted to just the <br />Mayor and Council articles or it can reach further and deal with other newsletter content, <br />such as articles written by EDC or PTRC members. <br /> <br />Items to discuss in developing or deciding to develop a newsletter policy could include <br />the following: <br /> <br /> <br />Acceptable Topics <br /> <br />Current City activities and events (i.e., road construction projects) <br /> <br />Issues under consideration by the Council <br />