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City of Gem Lake City Council Meeting minutes, July 18, 2017 Page 2 <br /> <br />that originate from? That was put in place by Putnam Planning and Design in a project for the City of <br />Gem Lake’s business district in 2007. <br /> <br />The personal attacks on the Mayor were uncalled for. Mayor Bob since taking office has done an <br />amazing job with the city financials, spearheading the water project for the business district which in <br />turn helps the business district with growth and development, saving the city over $85,000 in the first <br />year he was elected by replacement of the City Clerk. In 2018 the city will save over $30,000 by <br />negotiating new law enforcement protection with the City of White Bear Lake. Councilmember Kuny, <br />Lindner and Artig-Swomley thanked the Mayor for his dedication and service. Ms. Artig-Swomley went <br />on to say that of the 47 calls she received in regards to the property purchase, 25% of citizens were in <br />favor of the proposal. She wondered if those citizens were at the meeting but were too intimidated to <br />speak as such. <br /> <br />Citizens needs to keep in mind that 42 cities in Minnesota have no mayor and 100 cities have a <br />compromised city council. No one wants to be on the council or be the Mayor. And in Gem Lake, who <br />would want to step up in a leadership role after what happened at the Planning Commission meeting <br />and the City Council meeting? Councilmember Kuny stated that she was afraid for her family and her <br />family’s safety. <br /> <br />Councilmember Artig-Swomley then spoke further on the leadership crisis and about the toll this has <br />taken on the current city leaders. What to do? Keep recruiting volunteers to do things that need to be <br />done, make citizens aware of what current leaders have done, just on the new land use ordinance alone, <br />Councilmember Linder, Paul Emeott, Commissioner Johnson and a host of others have spent over 500 <br />hours of their own time working on the new land use ordinance. Although it seems counterproductive, <br />current leadership needs to stop volunteering so much of their own time, councilmembers currently <br />have saved the city over $40,000 by volunteering to write much of the comprehensive plan and many <br />other projects too numerous to mention. We need more volunteers to step up to take on these tasks. <br /> <br />We need to do some soul searching on how do we bring back our city together? She looked a number <br />of cities web sites in addition to the League of Minnesota Cities and came up with a simple set of <br />guidelines to address future meetings. The proposed guideline wording was taken from the League of <br />Minnesota Cities, the cities of Watertown and Shoreview. These guidelines have been reviewed and <br />approved by the City Attorney. Future meetings will adhere to these guidelines. The guidelines will be <br />posted on line, posted on the city bulletin board in the vestibule and at city meetings until the end of <br />2017. Following 2017 they will be posted on line on the city’s web site and posted in the city bulletin <br />board. One change to the guidelines was made, changing the guidelines to read “council meetings, <br />planning commission and public hearings.” <br /> <br />Guideline for Gem Lake Meetings <br />Effective July 18, 2017, the City of Gem Lake proposed the adoption of guidelines for all city meetings. <br />Guidelines will be posted on the web site, in the lobby of city hall and at the sign in sheet for all city <br />meetings. The guidelines were modeled from the cities of Shoreview and Watertown and were <br />reviewed and approved by the City attorney. Councilmember Lindner made a motion to accept the <br />guidelines with one change, changing the title of the document to read all city meetings, seconded by <br />Councilmember Artig-Swomley, motion passed. The City of Gem Lake guidelines were adopted. <br /> <br />Resolution 2017-08 – Replot of 19 Daniels Farm Road