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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – MARCH 10, 2025 19 Councilmember Monson said even when a Council Liaison sits on a committee they aren’t speaking for the Council, as a whole. Mayor Grant said there have been times where Councilmembers and Committee members have held outside meetings and tried to persuade others of the Council’s position. It wasn’t really the Council’s position, it was that one person’s. Councilmember Monson said it would be hard to control what someone says outside. She doesn’t know what other members say to constituents. She isn’t going to police that. Mayor Grant said this has happened from the bench and with outside meetings with developers. People have tried to convince developers that they were speaking for the Planning Commission. Councilmember Monson said in that situation it’s on the developer. They should be smarter than that. Mayor Grant said we should be smarter than that, too. We should say if you are on the Council or on a committee or commission you speak for yourself. Councilmember Weber sees one glaring issue with that. As the Liaison it is your duty to speak to the committees and commissions, when they ask questions, on behalf of the Council. We aren’t promoting our own agenda, but we are speaking on behalf of Council. Mayor Grant said we can have a whole discussion on the liaison role. It is not intended to lead the committee. It is not a voting position. It’s a resource. Sometimes you offer an opinion. The liaison is not there speaking for the Council. They are there to take information from the meeting and come back to Council with what the committees are doing. Some liaisons may get more involved with their committees. They are always speaking on behalf of themselves and their own views. Councilmember Monson said that doesn’t apply for the Fire Board. We are voting on what the City wants to do. Councilmember Weber said there is a liaison item to be discussed on the Agenda Planning list. He thinks this is beyond the scope of this discussion. Councilmember Monson said overall, she is okay with the Code of Conduct. She want’s something separate for the Council. Mayor Grant said the bottom line is “be kind”. Can we legislate that? Councilmember Monson asked if Mayor Grant wants “be kind” removed. Mayor Grant said no, he thinks it needs to be in there. There were some inappropriate swipes at the last meeting. Someone indicated that he and Councilmember Holden should have made a comment about something we knew nothing about. A former Councilmember passed away. Neither he nor Councilmember Holden knew that. There was an accusation questioning why we didn’t bring it up. Those kinds of things shouldn’t have a place here. He thinks that wasn’t kind.