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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL—November 9, 2009 17 9. Council Comments Councilmember Holmes stated that the problem is that the minutes are not available right away and because of this delay she is not sure if all the things that were discussed and decided upon are included in the minutes. Councilmember McClung stated that this is a large part of the problem. The Council does not have the minutes from the previous meeting to look back to. This process needs to be improved. He suggested that the minutes be available at the following meeting, in draft form if need be, in order for the Council to reference. He also stated that the minutes need to better memorialize what the actions are of the Council. He stated that this was a combination of not having an actual minute taker at the meetings and it taking far too long to get the minutes out. The Council needs to have a workable solution to the minutes. Councilmember Grant stated that when it is a consensus it becomes vague in the minutes because the tape does not pick up heads nodding and there is not a vote or poll. If a non-binding vote was taken to memorialize the vote then at least the Council has an idea of where they were. This is non-binding and people could change their minds but at least for the work session there is a reference on where people stood. Mayor Harpstead stated that this was an appropriate procedure and he would implant this into the work sessions. Councilmember Holden stated that it is important also that the Council would know what they are voting on or consenting to. Councilmember McClung stated that the Council could ask Staff at the end of a topic to restate what the discussion was and what the take away from that discussion is including action items. Councilmember Holmes stated that there needs to be action steps at each meeting and follow up on these action steps. She asked if the Council thought there should be a record taker at the work sessions. Mayor Harpstead stated that there is a role for Staff to articulate feedback and demonstrate understanding. He stated that he would like to know what the cost impact would be to have a record taker attend the meetings before making a decision on this question. He asked that Staff look into this and if there is no cost impact then he would agree to have them at the meeting. g Councilmember Holden stated that for the amount of time that issues are discussed and re- discussed it would make sense to have someone at the meetings. She recommended that this be included in the cost analysis. City Administrator Moorse stated that with the procedure of restating the action, action steps, and consensus vote this may be the solution that he City is looking for. Councilmember McClung suggested that Council ask Staff to come back with a more formalized procedure on how minutes are taken at the meetings and a length of time before they are brought back to the Council for approval.