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versus getting mailed and they reduced their paper usage by about 90 percent. Chairperson Field <br />stated he likes the idea of the newsletter as it is currently formatted and he feels it really brings <br />Ramsey together and gives a common cause and builds community spirit. He wants to see it <br />continued. He felt there are other options for its distribution though such as email. He suggested <br />maybe coming up with an incentive to get people to subscribe for it via email but then it could be <br />offered by mail as well. He added he would not be opposed to a quarterly document. It's pretty <br />much event driven so it is possible to do a winter, spring, summer and fall publication. <br />Commissioner Niska stated he generally agrees with that. Nothing else seems workable to him <br />to try to maintain complete saturation. You will not get everyone to give the government their <br />email address. It may end up costing more money to put in the individual addresses. City <br />Administrator Ulrich stated his concern is if we do a bulk mail then we get a bulk rate whereas if <br />we do individual mailings it may cost more money. Commissioner Niska agreed to change that <br />to pull out a few percent, it may be more expensive. Commissioner Shea reiterated that they <br />reduced their mailing fees by 90 — 95 percent. Commissioner Niska felt that it's a higher <br />percentage when you are talking a church and a business versus a city. Commissioner Deemer <br />suggested maybe doing post cards asking if people want to opt out of postal mailing. <br />Commissioner Shea stated that gives people the choice if they want to give out their emails or <br />not. Chairperson Field suggested looking at different competitors to see if they could do the <br />advertising cheaper — or the printing cheaper, etc. Commissioner Deemer stated that a thought <br />on the ads — the City is growing and we have businesses coming in and they should be <br />advertising. Maybe the EDA should generate a commercial from an in- coming business. <br />Commissioner Anderson stated that we have the Business and Environmental Expos. She <br />suggested maybe the City should have a booth to ask people what they like — use that as a survey <br />opportunity. Chairperson Field stated that a survey was done a couple years ago. City <br />Administrator Ulrich stated that we did a road reconstruction survey a couple years ago and we <br />asked them where they got most of their information and the newsletter was rated the top. <br />Attorney Goodrich suggested that the Commission could direct staff to draft language to allow <br />the newsletter quarterly and bring back language about electronic communication. Maybe we <br />can come up with some ideas on that. We are hearing about definitely not going away from the <br />printed version. He noted that if you cut the number of issues, he assumed advertising dollars <br />would go down as well. Commissioner Sivertson stated he would accept a friendly amendment <br />to his motion. <br />Motion and second withdrawn. <br />Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Chairperson Field to postpone this subject. <br />Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Field, Commissioners Anderson, Deemer, Niska, <br />Shea, and Sivertson. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioners Bendtsen, Niederhaus and <br />Sherman. <br />5.5. Approve Summary Letter to the Judge <br />City Clerk Thieling read the letter to the Judge summarizing the Charter's activities for 2011. <br />Charter Commission/ March 26, 2012 <br />Page 7 of 8 <br />