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REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Date: September 14, 2020 ItemNo.: Department ApprovalCity Manager Approval Item Description:Discuss voting status of Youth Commissioners 1 B ACKGROUND 2 At the August 10 meeting, City Council received a recommendation from the Human Rights, 3 Inclusion and Engagement Commission to allow Youth Commissioners to vote. At that time, 4 Council asked staff to bring back further information as it relates to this topic. 5 6 Staff researched the history of the issue and found little to no information. However, staff did reach 7 out to numerous cities to determine if they have youth commissioners and whether they have the 8 ability to vote. Below are theresponses we received. 9 YouthVote Commissioners ShoreviewHuman Rights No Parks commissionYes Falcon HeightsOn all commissions Yes except Planning New BrightonYes, although none Yes, except Planning currently Brooklyn ParkNo, but considering BloomingtonYesYes RichfieldYesYes MaplewoodNo 10 11 In addition, some considerations to be mindful of were brought up by the City Attorney as it relates 12 to youth commissioners. First, in most legal contexts, a minor is not considered to be able to act in a 13 legal capacity on their own.While serving in a strictly advisory capacity would typically not rise to 14 15 advisory nature of a city commission make it unlikely that there may be a legal action as it relates to 16 17 defend their action. Finally, a voting member of a commission is subject to the complaint process of 18 19 20 Should Council consensus be to allow youth commissioners the ability to vote, staff would bring 21 back an ordinance amendment to the Uniform Commission Code, Chapter 201 Advisory 22 Commissions for consideration. 23 F INANCIAL I MPACT 24 There are no financial impacts as it relates to youth commissioner voting status. Page1of2