Minutes - Council - 09/25/2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Finance Officer Lund replied that it was her understanding that the copies were for a non-City purpose. She was simply following procedure. City Administrator Norman explained that there was a petition earlier this year by a citizen group and he had received a call from Mr. Hendriksen requesting a copy of the petition. At that time he felt that the copies were needed for political reasons so he followed policy regarding residents copies and advised Mr. Hendriksen at that time to bring the issue up before the Council. Councilmember Hendriksen replied that he had called staff and asked for a copy of a petition, being interested in it as a Councilmember. At that time he was told he could not have a copy. He then called City Attorney Goodrich and asked why he was refused a copy of a petition. Mr. Hendriksen was then informed by City Administrator Norman that he would be charged for a copy of the petition. He stated that there are reasons why a citizen signs a petition, which is to try and get the Council to change their mind on an issue, and one way to change your mind on an issue is to have a conversation with those residents that signed the petition. Mr. Hendriksen explained that that particular petition was clumped together with the idea of a future river bridge crossing to gather support for the town center, when the town center and bridge crossing are two separate issues. The question at hand is do they as Councilmembers have the right to request a copy of a petition. He stated that if there is any doubt that petitions are routinely given out to Councilmembers he presented several copies of petitions that had been provided to him at no cost. He inquired as to why suddenly there was a reason to bill him. Thirty-one dollars and sixty cents is not a lot of money, but there is something afoot and why is he being treated differently. He questioned what the policy was on providing a Councilmember a copy of a petition so that they can follow up on it as part of their job. City Attorney Goodrich replied that there is no question that every member of the Council and the public have the right to have copies of public record, but the City Administration and the City is allowed to charge a reasonable sum for any copying requests. The question the Council needs to address is whether or not Mr. Hendriksen, as a Councilmember, is entitled to have what he requested free of charge or was he requesting the petition as a citizen. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that it was an informational petition presented to the Council by Alena Hunter. The City was not required to do anything further, but he had a personal interest in assessing 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 is a fine line whether or not he should have received a copy of the petition as a Councilmember or as a member of the public. Councilmember Zimmerman stated that once a petition is presented to the Council the public has the fight to know and the Councilmembers should have that information as well. City Council/September 25, 2001 ' Page 8 of 31