Minutes - Council - 02/11/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Motion by Councilmember Beahen and seconded by Councilmember Beyer to authorize the Administrative Services Manager and the Police Department to proceed with the process for hiring a Patrol Officer. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Mayor Gamec, Councilmembers Beyer, Beahen, Haas Steffen and Zimmerman. Voting No: None. 8) Receive Draft MPRS Resolutions Administrative Services Manager Waite Smith stated that the City has been a member with the Minnesota Police Recruitment system (MPRS) and was sued along with the other members several years ago. As part of the court order with the lawsuit, we have a number of obligations with affirmative action. MPRS is asking the City Council to adopt two resolutions. The fin'st resolution is requesting the League of Minnesota Cities Trust to appeal the judge's order in the MPRS case and to assume responsibilities for the related expenses. The second resolution authorizes the City's participation in joint activities coordinated by MPRS to comply with the aff'mnative action requirements of the court order. Staff just received these draft resolutions and we recommend they be reviewed by the City Attorney and be modified as necessary to protect the City from being the only City to ask for an appeal and from having an open ended amount to pay. Staff will bring these resolutions back for Council action following review by the City Attorney. Case #6: Adopt Resolution in Opposition to Proposed Legislation Regarding Plat Approvals Councilmember Haas Steffen stated she would like more discussion on this subject. Anoka County is asking for legislature to pass for them to be reviewing plats. She stated she is not interested in giving away the City's power but she is interested in making sure these entities are government supported - to make sure the tax dollars are spent in the most economical ways possible. She noted bad planning in our transportation area and pointed out T.H. //47. Councilmember Haas Steffen stated she would just like more information on this issue. Senator Paula Hanson is proposing to carry this bill to the legislature. If there are some good things here, she would like to support it. If the only bad thing is the added time it would take for plat approval, we should ask the Senator to amend this. She stated she would like some dissertation. Motion by Councilmember Haas Steffen and seconded by Councilmember Beyer to send this issue back to the Road and Bridge Committee for a lengthy discussion and have staff work with Senator Hanson and the County Commissioner or a representative. Further discussion: Mayor Gamec felt that this would have the county more involved and take the City out of the planning picture. Councilmember Haas Steffen disagreed. The City has to cooperate with the developer because of spending his money. This may be a good planning tool. She suggested checking with Dakota County to see how it's working there. We need to find out what this is about. We don't want to end up paying for poor planning. Councilmember Zimmerman stated that Council has a bill in front of them. The State wants to sign plats and have authorization to approve or disapprove them. This is a means that takes power away from the local government and shifts it to the State level. He expressed his opposition to this bill. The people of Ramsey are the closest to this, they are paying for this - they know what they need. Looking at T.H. 4/47, Ramsey needs to keep it's own power. Councilmember Haas Steffen responded that Councilmember Zimmerman may be right but this legislature is not in front of anyone yet. It cannot hurt us to look at it. Mr. Schroeder reported that Anoka County Commissioner Dennis Berg left a message this evening. The County has received a fairly significant response from cities expressing concerns about this. It seems that Senator Hanson will not be carrying this bill because of the concerns stated. Commissioner Berg feels this bill may come back from a different force in a different form ~ the Association of Minnesota Counties or something similar. He added that this City Council/February 11, 1997 Page 10 of 14