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Approved: April 24, 2023 <br />CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA <br />CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION <br />MARCH 20, 2023 <br />5:00 P.M. - ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS <br />CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL <br />Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council <br />Work Session at 5:00 p.m. <br />Present: Mayor David Grant, Councilmembers Brenda Holden, Emily Rousseau, <br />Tena Monson and Tom Fabel <br />Absent: None <br />Also present: City Administrator Dave Perrault, Public Works Director/City Engineer <br />David Swearingen, Assistant Public Works Director Lucas Miller, Deputy Clerk Jolene <br />Trauba, Northeast Youth and Family Services (NYFS) President/CEO Angela Lewis- <br />Dmello and Ethical Leaders in Action (ELA) President Chad Weinstein <br />1.PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL <br />Gregg Larson, 3377 North Snelling Avenue, complimented the Council on broadcasting the <br />work sessions and the addition of public comment. He also gave compliments to the new Council <br />on proposed revisions to public inquiry language. He felt consideration of the revisions was long <br />overdue and underlined that adoption of new language is a Council, not Mayoral, action and that <br />striking the gag provision that prohibited public comment on litigation acknowledged there was <br />never any legal justification. He felt the restraint on public speech for the last four years was an <br />effort to deter criticism of the Council. <br />Mr. Larson felt the Council norms of behavior were missing an item, and asked to add “Use of <br />profanity, expletives or vulgar language at public meetings is offensive and unbecoming of an <br />elected official.” <br />Mr. Larson felt a community survey could be an imprecise measure of community attitudes, that <br />non-respondent bias affects the outcome and the results do not represent the overall population but <br />only the views of a resident subset. Survey preparation requires great care to design the sampling <br />procedure that addresses self-selection bias of respondents and develop questions that are neutral, <br />not leading. He thought today’s bench handout didn’t appear to address those issues for the <br />validity of the results. He thought the Council should give careful consideration as to how it <br />proceeds on the issue.