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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — APRIL 15, 2024 6 City Administrator Perrault summarized the Mayor would be testifying and noted the Council would revisit this topic in January of 2025. Councilmember Monson spoke to the pros and cons of having a lobbyist working on behalf of the City. She indicated it was a lot of work to follow bills but she believed Representative Moller and Senator Marty were very accessible to the City Council. However, when the Council had to go broader, it may be more difficult to get access. Councilmember Fabel asked if the League of Minnesota Cities did a good job tracking the broader issues. Mayor Grant commented the League of Minnesota Cities would keep track of broader issues but would not track issues for Arden Hills. Councilmember Holden discussed how it was a negative to have a lobbyist because it was assumed if the City had funding for a lobbyist, it had funding for its projects. Councilmember Monson questioned if the cost of a lobbyist would be worth it because the City would receive more funding. Councilmember Holden did not believe this would be the case, because this lobbyist would be working on behalf of 40 other cities. She believed the best bet was for the Council to do the work themselves, or to work through the local legislators. Mayor Grant indicated the City has received $7.2 million for smaller projects and all of this funding was received without a lobbyist. Councilmember Rousseau was of the opinion Representative Moller does a great job shepherding projects. She stated it may be a different story if she and Senator Marty were not responsive to the City. Consensus of the Council was to not pursue a lobbyist at this time. C. Strategic Goal Setting City Administrator Perrault stated as part of the LMCIT meeting earlier in the year, Council discussed Strategic Goal setting as a priority. Council should discuss how it wants to approach strategic goal setting, and a path to move forward. One option would be to engage with a consultant. Last year, the Council considered Ethical Leaders in Action (ELA) but opted not to move forward. The 2024 budget does have $10,000 included for such services. Councilmember Holden indicated she didn't understand the difference between a goal session and the retreat. City Administrator Perrault stated the retreat would be more all encompassing and goal setting could be a part of it. He explained a goal setting session would define timelines for goals with the Council working with staff to implement the goals with metrics or some other form of tracking.