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Mr. Christopher K. Miller March 16,2005 Page 3 another officer or employee unless and except if certain conditions as set forth in the statute are complied with. Those provisions seem to set forth the following rules: — �A� Under no circumstances may an employee who is directly involved — in the auction or process pertaining to the administration and � collection of bids purchase such property. We read this broadly and preclude any employees who may be involved in the sale process ' from purchasing property. �B� In order for any employee to be eligible to purchase such property there must have been reasonable public notice that was given of the sale or auction. The statute specifically states that requirements for reasonable public notice may be prescribed by other law or ordinance, so long as at least one week's published notice is specified. In this regard, published notice means just that. In other words, at least a week before items are put on the auction block at an electronic auction house, there should be notice published pursuant to Minn. Stat. � 331A.03. I would also point out, that it looks to us that there are potentials for alternative dissemination of such published notice, that, if sought to be used and if the proper procedures were followed, could do away with the requirement for newspaper publication after a period of six months. If that is something of interest of the city, let us know and we can give you further information on our interpretation of the statute in that regard. �C� Because of the use of the phrase "employee and officer" in the statute, and places where they are used together and then where only one is used, Minn. Stat. � 15.054 seems to state that under no circumstances may an officer of the subdivision purchase property from the subdivision. As is often the case in these kinds of statutes, there is no definition of the word "officer." Frequently in other statutory provisions, phrases such as "public officials" and other similar listings of "categories" of persons are set forth, usually with no definition. Therefore, we need to be conservative in our approach to ensure that no one violates the law. Any person violating a provision of Minn. Stat. � 15.054 is guilty of a misdemeanor, so we want to avoid that. Under any reading of what an officer would be, certainly the elected officials of the city would be its officers. This is supported by a