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CRAIG KLAUSING 447 Rose Place Roseville, Minnesota 55113 Monday, February 04, 2002 Dear Mayor and Council: I am writing to express my concern over the way in which the Mayor's ability to prepare agenda items is being used by the Mayor to suppress public discussion and to prevent council members from having items placed on the agenda. On Wednesday, January 23,2002 and again on Wednesday, January 30,2002, I requested that items be placed on the agenda. The first request dealt with two iteIlls, the ability of the Mayor to create task forces and the starting times of nleetings. The second request dealt with the proposed rules for placing items on the agenda. In both cases the Mayor specifically instructed the city manager to remove IllY items from the agenda. This is not only wrong, it is directly contrary to the promise that the Mayor made regarding how the new rule was to work. At our January ih meeting, speaking against an aIllendment to allow any two members to have something placed on the agenda the Mayor said, "I've already stated very clearly. . .any meIllber can have an item placed on the agenda." He continued, "The problelll with the rule of saying any two members is you are saying that anyone IlleIllber does not have the authority to put something on the agenda and that's wrong. I believe that you [speaking to TOIll Kough] should have the authority to put sOlllething on the agenda even if I disagree with it." Yet precisely because the Mayor disagrees with my position on these issues (or what he anticipates my position is) he is preventing me from having these issues considered by the council. This is wrong and I ask the council to reconsider if this is how we wish to conduct the public's business. Respectfully yours, Craig Klausing