Notes from March 10 2008 regular council meeting

A lengthy public hearing on a joint project with North St. Paul to improve Beam Avenue east of White Bear Avenue did not result in any significant general public policy about sidewalks, parking, traffic calming, or means of communicating with residents about rights-of-way, snow removal, or how decisions are made about street improvements.

Citizen Services Director Karen Guilfoile was authorized to create a marketing position to deal with producing the City News and the city website, and to generate advertising revenue from these and other venues.

Council rules and procedures were revised to eliminate Ms. Longrie's monthly column in the City News so that each council member has equal time available. Each council member will have two issues in the article-writing schedule, with the remaining two assigned to the mayor. The use of pictures of individual council members in city publications, like the City News and the website, was referred to City Attorney Kantrud. The League of Minnesota Cities advice to not use images in such a way to promote an individual council member or connect projects to individuals is based in part on a repealed MN statute. Mr. Kantrud is also preparing language to extend the use of city facilities for non-official business, such as non-partisan political meetings. Finally, the rules were clarified to acknowledge the City Attorney as the parliamentarian, a resource to each council member on rules of procedure. No action was taken on Mr. Rossbach's suggestion that the rules include a statement acknowledging that in a Plan B city the council only has authority as a body, noting that individual council members, including the mayor, have no individual, discretionary power. Mr. Nephew suggested such a statement would only lead to time spent debating power and authority, rather than exercising the council's powers to accomplish the work of the city.

Substantial time was devoted to Xcel Energy's Conditional Use Permit (CUP) authorizing their wood chipping activities, a periodic need driven by trimming under power lines and other maintenance work.

The south leg moratorium is set to expire this week. Mr. Ahl is confident that the city has sufficient regulatory tools available to maintain the status quo until the comprehensive plan revisions are complete.

Due to ongoing litigation (CoPar), Mr. Nephew withdrew his council presentation requesting information about the possibility of a bonding referendum aimed at purchasing additional open space. Some portion of CoPar's land in south Maplewood could be included in a list of potential land purchase opportunities.