Agenda - Council Work Session - 05/07/2013

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CITY /ATTORNEY RELATIONSHIP We pride ourselves on crafting legally appropriate solutions to accomplish the goals and mission of the client. Whenever possible, we provide a client with a range of options and an analysis of the associated risks and benefits. We emphasize that the client has the obligation to choose the course of conduct after full and complete legal advice. Typically, our primary contacts are with the City Administrator and the department heads, usually via telephone and e -mail. The appointed city attorney supervises all ongoing issues and remains the primary contact even if some of the work is being handled by other attorneys in the firm. If the city attorney is not available, then the back-up attorney maybe contacted. We strive to always have experienced municipal counsel available to respond to City inquiries. The response time requested within the RFP can certainly be met and are within our normal parameters for our clients. Monthly reports can be provided at the beginning of every month, perhaps in advance of the first day of office hours. All pending projects and issues can be reviewed during office hours. Typically, for more urgent matters, reporting is frequently handled by phone or e -mail to the appropriate staff on an ongoing basis. We maintain a comprehensive municipal law library as well as access to Westlaw and other online research sources. We utilize Microsoft Word for document editing. The vast majority of our client communications, even with nearby clients, is by phone, e -mail and fax. We maintain a state -of- the -art computer network and phone system that provides our attorneys with 24 hour access to voice mail, e -mail, and our entire document database and file system. CITIES REPRESENTED, EXPERIENCE AND REFERENCES' Currently, we are the appointed City Attorney for the Cities of Lino Lakes, Clear Lake, Cass Lake, Ironton, Deerwood, BreezyPoint and Federal Dam. We also provide legal services to the Cities of Eagan (labor and employment), and Hastings (labor and employment) as well as special assignments for St. Paul. We have represented most of these cities for years and have provided all of the civil legal services typically required of a city attorney. These include ordinance drafting and enforcement, zoning and re- zoning, drafting and vacating easements, guiding Chapter 429 assessments and handling appeals, drafting and enforcing development agreements, providing guidance on Open Meeting Law and Government Data Practices Act issues, and so forth. City governance gives rise to a wide variety of legal issues, which makes our work both challenging and interesting. References City of Clear Lake, Kari Mechtel, City Clerk City of Lino Lakes, Jeff Karlson, City Administrator City of Ironton, Amy Baratto, City Clerk 3 (320) 743 -3111 (651) 982 -2400 (218) 546 -5625