Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/01/2003

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with regard to the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast and the Lord of Life Passion Play production. The inquiries received from a resident after this most recent publication noted these two articles and expressed concern with the City's relationship to religious organizations. Staff was seeking direction from Council for the development of a policy that would outline what types of community events or information may appear in the City publication. Staff has also considered developing a 'community section' of the newsletter where these types of articles could appear somewhat separately from City information. City Clerk Thieling noted that when the sign is rented, the organizations renting it is informed that if City information needs to be placed on the sign their information will be removed. Mayor Gamec stated that all organizations should be charged for the use of the sign with the exception of the Ramsey Lions since they gave the City the sign. Councilmember Cook stated that he did not believe that they should be charging RYAA for the use of the sign since they handle the City's recreation programs on a volunteer basis. City Administrator Norman recommended that the City put a limit on how many times the sign can be used at no charge. Councihnember Elvig suggested that RYAA be permitted to use the sign for free once a quarter. City Clerk Thieling noted that the City does use Lord of Life, New Song Church, Cross of Hope, and Independent Baptist for a polling place at no cost to the City. She suggested that those facilities be allowed to use the sign free of charge four times a year also. Councilmember Cook stated that if they require churches to pay for the use of the sign then there is no connection between the City and the Church. Councilmember Strommen replied that the churches are paying for the use because they are allowing the City to use their facilities for free for polling places. Mayor Gamec suggested that they lower the fee for everyone and only allow for RYAA and Lions to use the sign for free four times a year. Councilmember Zimmerman recommended that staff get information from surrounding cities on what their policies are for the use of a city sign. Consensus of the City Council was to direct staff to review the policy of other cities regarding the use of city signs and then draft a policy for Council consideration. Assistant City Administrator Nelson inquired if the Council was in agreement with including a community page in the Ramsey Resident. City Council Work Session/April 1, 2003 Page 6 of 8