09/02/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/2!2003 John Larson of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. The city has to be concerned about increasing a fee to a point where it does not simply cover costs and becomes a tax. He and Mr. Larson have concerns this could affect the city's unvoted tax limits and there could be equal protection and due process issues. He would encourage the department heads to evaluate the various fees charged within their departments to determine whether or not the city is chazging enough to fairly cover the city's administrative costs. Mr. Larson suggested the possibility of having an administrative service portion of the cost to cover some of the city's overhead costs. Also, there is the possibility that the city can increase criminal penalties associated with these types of violations of city ordinances, and many of those criminal penalties return to the city's General Fund as a fine. 2) On August 20, he attended a meeting of the city's records commissions. The commission is in the process of requesting each department to provide the commission with a list of document categories within that department and recommended retention schedules. Hopefully, once that information is received, the commission can begin to establish formal retention schedules which will enable the city to initiate the process of destroying old records which by law no longer need to be retained. 3) On August 21, he provided legal advice to the Mayor regazding Springvale contracts. His advise was, like all other city contracts, Springvale ballroom rental contracts should be signed by the Mayor. Because no city monies are expended under such contracts, no Council authorization is needed. 4) On August 22, he provided legal advice to Councilman Miller regarding possible expansion of the city's STOP program to include enforcement of other city codes in addition to the city's traffic code. He believes this arose out of some of the issues of enforcement of noise code and unloading ordinances at Home Depot. 5) On August 23, he provided legal advice to the Safety Director regarding the city's immunity from liability regazding a proposal to operate a driver maneuverability course at the Recreation Center. 6) On August 24, he participated in the city's Homecoming parade. 7) On August 26, he attended a directors' meeting and the city schools' convocation. 8) The week of August 24 through 29, he worked on a number of issues relating to the city's collective bargaining session negotiations. Councilman Gareau asked Service Director Driscoll for an update on the issue of a Grace Road resident being required to mow the grass on Brookpark Road adjacent to his property. Mr. Driscoll answered that the city is continuing the efforts as in the past. The city does cut some of the grass on Brookpazk Road and has, as part of that cutting, also cut that section of grass on Brookpark Road. Although the city has not discontinued that effort, he can't make a promise that it will continue in the future. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The June and July reconciliations and reports through July were issued to Council on August 26. 2) City Council has asked for a projected carryover that is purely an estimate to be included in her regular Council reports. She is preparing a review of the finances through July which will provide more information to be able to give this estimate. It is very important to not only review results to prior years but also to the budget that was set forth by Council. Also, it is important to look at the assumptions that were made in that and 2