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Page 8 Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 HRA~.. continued from Page 1 motion at the Sept. 3 special meeting of the council, to pro- vide. the suggested HRA appointees one week prior to the meeting seeking action. The mayor did not comply \Vith the request, disseminat- ing information on the Satur- day prior to the Monday meet- ing, Klausing said, via a Com- munity Service Officer who dropped off the mayor's rec- ommendations in council members' residential mail boxes. In a follow-up interview, the mayor said the state statute is quite clear when it comes to the BRA board's fonnation. "The statute says, 'The mayor appoints; not the coun- cil appoints," Kysylyczyn said. "I was not willing to violate law, or the appointment proce- dure set out in state statute, by abdicating my authority to appoint members to the HRA board. " As for the timing discrep- ancy mentioned by Klausing regarding the lack of a week's notice for information on the HRA appointees, Kysylyczyn said he got the information out as soon as he got the go ahead from Ramsey County. "We were supposed to make the HRA appointments weeks ago, but the city's legal counsel found an obscure provision in the law at the last minute that said we (the city of RoseviUe) had to get approval from the county to form an HRA because the county already has an HRA in place," Kysylyczyn said. "1 received notice from the county on Wednesday afternoon that we could do ahead with the appointment process, but that no meeting or action should be taken by the new board until the county commissioners officially meet to pass a resolution approving our HRA organization. "Once 1 got the county's per- mission to proceed, 1 talked with council member Kough about his ideas of appointing council members or citizens to the new BRA board," Kysyly- czyn continued. "Kough has had prior experience. with an HRA and I was seeking his opinion. We both agreed that we didn't want anyone against the BRA to be on the board simply because it wouldn't be conducive to getting things done by the organization. We both agreed we only wanted people committed to housing issues to serve. With all the good applicants available, I decided to make it strictly a citizen-appointed commis- sion." The use of a community ser- vice officer, he added, is con- sistent with past city practices dating back over 10 years. Roseville's public relations specialist Carolyn Curti veri- fied that statement. "Community service officers deliver council packets every Thursday, and occasionally we miss items that are delivered at a later date,"Curti explained. "This is the first time the mayor has made such a request. However, we don't consider it to be a violation of any city ordinance or law. We see it as part of the responsibil- ity as mayor to get pertinent information out to fellow councilmen. " Though the council mem- ber's Sept. 3 motion requesting information about the appli- cants was approved 3-2, the city attorney ruled at that same meeting that the mayor was not legally required to pro- vide the information. "It is simply a courtesy request not addressed by state statute." Meet Roseville's HRA board The mayor's first appoint- ment, and the temporary chair of the. group is Roseville home- owner Bill Majerus, who will serve a five-year term on the HRA board. Majerus has a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. from Kansas State Uni- versity. He is the former man.. ager of the School-to-Work Partnership for the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he is currently in his first year as a member of the Roseville Area School Board. On his application form, Majerus said he is look- ing forward to using his wide range of education, career and business experience to address