Agenda - Council - 10/23/2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Finance Officer Lund replied that it was her understanding that the copies were for a non:Cily purpose. She was simply following procedure. City Administrator Nmrnan explained that there was a petition earlier this year by.'i/Gfizen group and he had received a call from Mr. Hendriksen requesting a copy of the petitior~; ;i~i 'thai.time he felt that the copies were needed for political reasons so he followed policy<regarding reiidents copies and advised Mr. Hendriksen at that time to bring the issue up befor~"the'council. Councilmember Hendriksen replied that he had called staff and asl~e~di':fOr a c~P~~ of a petition, being interested in it as a Councilmember. At that time he was re,i'd hb?dduld not have a copy. He then called City Attorney Goodfich and asked why he wa~ refUsed a coPy of a petition. Mr. Hendriksen was then informed by City Administrator Nde;an that hg~would be charged for a copy of the petition. He stated that there are reasons w~ya citizen si~i"!a.:petition, which is to try and get the Council to change their mind on an issue;'khd.-0ne way to:~hange, your mind on an issue is to have a conversation with those residents~that ~igned the:P~iitio-n:' Mr. Hendriksen explained that that particular petition was clumped together witl~' timid.ed of a future fiver bridge crossing to gather support for the town center, when the town cen{~i:'h~d bridge crossing are two separate issues. The question at hand is do they as Councilmembers"h~//ve the~,ght to request a copy of a petition. He stated that if there is any doubt that petitions arc-:routinely given out to Councilmembers he presented several c3~ies'-of petitions that had been P~0:vided to him at no cost. He inquired as to why suddenly.there was':a reason to bill him'.::'is$31.60 is not a lot of money, but there is something more afoot, and why is he being ~eated differently. He questioned what the policy was on providing a Cou'ncilmember a copy of a petition so that they can follow up on it as part of their job. City Attorney Goodrich rephed that there is' no question that every member of the Council and the public havethe right to have cop~es ofpubiic reCO!~d,, but the City Administration and the City is allowed to charge a reasonable sum for any Copy/rig requests. The question the Council needs to addr~s is_whether or nOt_Mr. Hendriksen,:as a'Councilmember, is entitled to have what he requested free of charge or-was he_~requesti_ngthe petition as a citizen. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that ii-was an informational petition presented to the Council 'ByxAlena Hunter. The City was not required to do anything further, but he had a personal interest '; ~<'-in"~asses~iing what that number' Of people were really interested in, if it was the river bridge crossing or..the~ town center..-_ _ City Attorney Goodrich noted that the City does not have a policy on when a Councilmember is or is not charged'for copies. He stated that there ~s a fine line whether or not he should have received a copy o.f the petition as a Councilmember or as a member of the public. Co.uncilmember Zimmerman stated that once a petition is presented to the Council the public has the~right t0-know and the Councilmembers should have that information as well. -22- City Council/September 25, 2001 Page 8 of 31 I I I I I I , i ! I I I