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Mr. Christopher K. Miller March 16, 2005 Page 4 reading of Minn. Stat. �� 412.02 and 412.021. Council members and the mayor would qualify as officers. There is a reference in 412.023, subd. 2(a) to a city administrator, as an "other officer" see �'Ii�n, Stat. � 412.023, subd. 5. Thus, the City Administrator should be considered an officer. _ In addition, when one looks under the statutes dealing with optional ! plan B cities, Minn. Stat. ;� 412.681 is entitled in part "officers are ! — under the manager." It indicates that there is to be a clerk, a � — treasurer and "such other officers subordinate to the manager as the - — council may create by ordinance." From this, one can argue that a person is only deemed an "officer" if an ordinance of the City states they are one. Or, one could take the viewpoint that persons subordinate to the manager but high up in the hierarchy might be, by analogy, "officers" of a city. We think the last statement above to be the most conservative �� _ approach one could take. And we believe that to be the best t _ approach to take. It certainly insures that the City does not violate ` — any law. Under such approach, all department heads would be considered to be officers. That would make them ineligible for the purchase of surplus property. �� The prohibitions on sales to employees never applies to items that the city sales to the general public in the ordinary course of business. So, for instance, if the city owns a candy manufacturing plant and - sells candy to anyone at all, any employee can also buy it. If the city sells water, employees and officers can also buy it. Finally, we need to point out that the prohibition in 15.054 is against officers or employees of the City selling to prohibited individuals, or in circumstances where the proper procedures as set forth above are not followed. As noted earlier, any person violating the provisions of that statute would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Because of that, we believe that it is important that the identity of the purchaser be known to the City at or before the completion of the sale. Therefore, only those on-line auction services in which the identity of the purchaser is known should be used by the City.