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Schroeder, Greg From: Joel J. Jamnik [Joel(a�ck-law.com] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 10:07 AM To: 'GregS@rcm.net' Subject: FW: City Council Rules and Procedures -----Original Message----- From: Joel J. Jamnik Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 10:04 AM To: 'Greg Schroeder' Subject: RE: City Council Rulea and Procedures Greg- Here are my comments on the Proposed Rules: Generally, the rules as revised conform to atatutory requirements. Several legal issues are raieed by the phrasing of the proposed rules and interpretive issues can be foreseen as a consequence, but it is my opinion that all of the proposed rules are "legal" as currently proposed. The following comments are therefore submitted only as a guide to further the discussion of the proposed rules and to highlight possible areas of ambiguity and potential refiaement. You may also want to consider retaining from the existing Procedures Rule 13 (Suspension of Rules) and Rule 16 (Consideration of Items not on the Agenda)since these issues frequently arise. Rule 1- Both the present Council rules (Rule 13) and Robert's address the suspension of rules, as does an unincorporated section of Mason's. It may be beneficial for the proposed rules to clearly establish how the council may suspend normal procedures to address the unanticipated or out of the ordinary situations that inevitably arise. In the absence of specificity, the provisions of Robert's regarding the suspension of rules would seem to apply as specified in Proposed Rule 9. Rule 2- State law requires that the Council establish a achedule of the Council's regular meetings to be maintained at City Hall (M.S. 13D.04) The City previously met this requirement at least partially by specifying its regular meeting dates in the Rules. While it is not required that the Rules of the body include its regular meeting schedule, the Council should establish the achedule as soon as practicable, in order to comply with the statutory requirement. Rule 3- No comments or suggestions. Rule 4- While it is extremely unlikely that the Mayor and Acting Mayor would both be unavailable for a meeting, and also unavailable to designate a presiding officer among the remaining three councilmembers, the League of Minnesota Cities model rules suggest that in that event the remaining councilmembers available for the meeting choose a presiding officer among themselves. It would seem prudent to address this potential eventuality, particularly in light of the ambiguity surrounding the suspension of the standing rules. Rule 5- No comments or suggestions. Rule 6- No comments or suggestions. Rule 7- No comments or suggestions. Rule e- No comments or suggestions.