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July 27, 2003 Page services. With that information a governing body determines whether the charges are &treasonable - "7 2. Consultation with the City Attorney It is required under Minn. Stat. § 465.76 that the municipality consult with its legal counsel regarding reimbursement. This is accomplished through what the City is doing at this juncture, requesting an opinion and answers to questions regarding reimbursement. It is also accomplished by questions during the proceedings of the governing body at which reimbursement is discussed and/or decided. 3. Disinterested Officials Minn. Stat. § 465.76 references the fact that if less than a quorum of the governing body is disinterested, reimbursement is to be approved by a judge of the district court. The statute itself does not indicate whether that is to occur before or after a decision of the Council. In other words, were City Council Members all interested in the reimbursement decision, could they make that decision and then present it to the court for approval? Or, does it mean that the decision is to go to the court in the first instance? The Iroschel, supra, case answers the question by clarifying the statute and indicating the decision is to be made by the district court { under such circumstances. As earlier indicated in a footnote, disinterested in this sense means a lacy of a pecuniary interest in the outcome. It could also be said to encompass an interest that is not likely to be contrary to the interest of the general public. I raise that issue because there could be interests that are non - pecuniary that would mandate that an individual member of the governing body also be found not to be "disinterested." For instance, in circumstances where the charges of a criminal nature were, let us say a criminal assault or battery, and the assault was by one Council Member against another Council Member, the victim of the crime might have an interest sufficient to determine that he is not "disinterested." However, in our opinion, it is an exceedingly limited and narrow situation outside a pecuniary interest where a member of the governing body might be said not to be disinterested. Reimbursement issues can and frequently will be hot button items for municipalities. It is quite easy for members, in particular those members who have a pecuniary interest, to allege that other members will not act fairly or make a decision based upon what that member deems to be best and appropriate under the circumstances. Frankly, that will be present in almost 7 This is in accordance with the large body of law existing in the courts and arising out of what are called fee shifting eases. In the American judicial system, litigants normally pay their own attorney's fees. In some cases, by virtue of statutes, a prevailing party is allowed to recover fees from a losing party. Hundreds, if not thousands of uses have been decided under those fee s1jiffing standards, from the United States Supreme Court down to the lowest district courts. The standards set forth in the text above come directly out of those eases.