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<br />incur a lot of cost to the City. Staff has asked individuals with significant data request to fill out <br />the form referenced in the Guidelines. Staff responds to people over email or by phone for <br />simpler requests. Staff is bringing this forward as a point of discussion and to answer questions <br />of the Council. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich advised state statute is very specific regarding the dissemination of <br />public data, and is incorporated into the City's Guidelines and Procedures for the Minnesota <br />Government Data Practices Act. The City has dedicated the administrative assistant as the <br />responsible authority to account for these requirements. The City follows a series of procedures <br />on how to make data available. Mr. Goodrich indicated there is a significant amount of public <br />data available on the city website to individuals that do not go through the City. Individuals that <br />come to the City to receive copies can be charged 25 cents per copy up to 100 sheets. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig stated he supports the Data Practices Act and advocates anyone being able <br />to reach the information they are looking for. His concern is where the line is drawn between <br />what is a piece of information being requested and what is conjecture being requested; what is <br />the point where it is determined the request is beyond a public document and does not need to be <br />responded to. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich advised individual councilmembers are not required to respond to data <br />requests or answer questions. City staff and government at City Hall are responsible for <br />providing the data. Secondly, the City is not responsible to bring up a learning curve; they are <br />responsible to disseminate data. Staff is not required to do research or give conjecture on why a <br />certain councilmember voted on a particular project, and they attempt not to do that. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen pointed out part of the issue becomes that often the same request is <br />emailed to multiple staff people. The issue then is how to get it back to the point person so that <br />person can make a decision about what is a legitimate request for data, what is beyond that, and <br />who shall respond. She asked what the process is when an email is addressed to all the staff <br />members. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich indicated there has not been an issue with all of the department heads <br />scrambling to put the information together. The Interim City Administrator makes sure someone <br />has responded to these requests. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen indicated questions about why a councilmember voted a certain way <br />should be emailed to Council, not staff. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich advised councilmembers are not required to respond to these emails; it is <br />up to councilmembers whether or not to respond. <br /> <br />Interim City Administrator Nelson explained in the past there were legal questions involved with <br />information requests and it was determined that everything would go through the City Attorney. <br />They are now back to a situation where the volumes are coming in from time to time. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / February 13,2007 <br />Page 5 of 6 <br />