Agenda - Council - 02/08/2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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hands of special interests that can raise unlimited funds for the purpose of promoting their more narrow interests. SD-23. Civil Liability of Local Governments Issue: One of the barriers to the delivery of governmental services and programs is the exposure of local governments and their officials to civil damage claims. The state has acted to protect itself and its local governments by enacting exceptions and limitations to liability suits, and authorizing self-insurance and other mechanisms to deal with claims allowed by law. Response: The League of Minnesota Cities supports: a) Creating an exception to municipal tort indemnification law, Minn. Stat. § 466.07, where an employee is defended and indemnified for claims under a contract of insurance carried by the employee. b) Extending the protection of the state and municipal Tort Claims Act to quasi -governmental entities when performing public services such as firefighting or licensed third -party ambulance providers that contract with a municipality to provide ambulance services. c) Existing constitutional safeguards for protecting public and private property interests without any statutory expansion of property rights. d) Clarifying and maintaining the applicability of municipal immunity in various areas, including, but not limited to, vicarious official immunity and park and recreational immunity, including the extension to entities providing a public service that have not traditionally been included within 27 the immunity (e.g., state trails over municipal utility easements). e) Preserving changes to Minnesota's joint and several liability laws that require a municipality to be at least 50 percent at fault to be held responsible for 100 percent of a damage award. 0 Reasonable limits on the amount and circumstances in which statutory attorney fees may be awarded in order to encourage settlement by all parties and decrease the likelihood of litigation. Preserving the essential structure of the local government tort liability caps in Minn. Stat. § 466.04. g) SD-24. Private Property Rights and Takings Issue: In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision, Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469, which upheld the ability of local governments to use eminent domain for economic development purposes, the Legislature enacted significant restrictions on cities' use of eminent domain for economic development and redevelopment, and imposed new compensation and procedural requirements that apply to all condemnation actions, including those for traditional public uses such as roads, parks, and schools. Legislation to control cities' abilities to perform regulatory acts such as road rights -of -way condemnation, shooting range zoning, and amortization has also received strong support from legislators. In addition, some legislators would like to authorize businesses to seek inverse condemnation when a governmental entity enters the business market and provides competing goods or services or limits the number of businesses that can operate privately or receive public contracts.