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Agenda Item 3. HRA Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, August 18, 2015 Page 5 1 organization. Member Wall suggested a scenario under this agreement where the HRA 2 executive director position – as a City employee, could filter all information to the HRA Board 3 through the filter of the City Council and could remove or add information as they saw fit. 4 Member Wall opined that, depending on the political climate, this may include filtering 5 information someone may not want the HRA to look. 6 7 Member Wall noted there were other organizations under the City’s umbrella (e.g. Roseville 8 Visitor’s Association) that were funded through city taxes approved by the City with them 9 serving as fiscal agent for that organization. However, Member Wall noted that their executive 10 director did not report to the City Council, but to the RVA Board. Member Wall opined this 11 didn’t need to be that complicated and other HRA’s in the State of MN did it and did it well. 12 13 Member Wall stated that he would recommend not only that the HRA Board not accept this 14 agreement, but carefully consider hiring its own executive director and become directly 15 responsible for hiring and managing that position. If the City Council wants to control the 16 HRA Board’s primary employee and have that direct report to the City Manager and City 17 Council, Member Wall stated that was their prerogative, but he didn’t think it was appropriate 18 under those circumstances to impose responsibility of spending money and spending it wisely 19 to the HRA and then allowing the Board no control or ability to react if the executive director 20 was not doing what they were hired to do. 21 22 Member Wall stated that he was not in favor of signing this agreement, and hiring and 23 developing its own executive director and dealing with compensation accordingly versus how 24 the position falls within the City’s pay schedule. Under the current arrangement, Member 25 Wall opined that he wasn’t sure he was getting all the HRA Board was paying for, further 26 opining that he didn’t think 100% of Ms. Kelsey’s time was being spent on HRA-related 27 business, even though the HRA was paying 100% of that salary. Member Wall suggested that 28 the agreement should reflect responsibilities and roles with the city as well as getting what the 29 HRA Board was paying for instead of paying city staff assigned salary and benefits. Member 30 Wall opined that the HRA Board needed to look at this position and the part-time position to 31 see the return on that position was of value before signing this type of agreement. 32 33 Recognizing that Member Wall had made some great points, Member Majerus reiterated his 34 request that the discussion stay on focus on this draft agreement and vote it up or down; and 35 bring those issues to the table at a later date as applicable and with consensus. 36 37 Member Etten opined that the time is right now for this discussion in the broader scheme. 38 39 Community Development Director Bilotta clarified that there were bigger issues that needed to 40 be addressed in considering this agreement and contractual arrangement. Mr. Bilotta stated 41 there were checks and balances in place with the control concerns; opining that this draft 42 agreement worked hand in hand with the HRA’s by-laws. Mr. Bilotta clarified that the role of 43 the City Manager is to nominate someone to serve as the HRA’s executive director, but 44 annually the HRA – through adoption or revision of its own by-laws – voted whether or not to 45 appoint that person as executive director, and read that portion of the by-laws addressing that. 46 Mr. Bilotta noted the by-laws stated that the “…HRA SHALL appoint an executive 47 director…” While the City Manager nominates the position, Mr. Bilotta reiterated that the 48 HRA chose its director on an annual basis. While not saying this is an ideal structure or that 49 there may not be a different way to provide services, Mr. Bilotta assured the Board that there 50 was a safeguard in place and a “big hammer” available for the Board to take if and when a 51 situation came up requiring them to do so. 52 53 At the request of Chair Maschka, Mr. Bilotta clarified that it was the HRA’s by-laws and not 54 this or any services agreement that allowed the Board to appoint or not appoint their executive 55 director on an annual basis. Mr. Bilotta recognized that the HRA could end up with a nominee