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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021 07-08 CHCMBrooklyn Center Charter Commission Meeting Minutes July 81", 2021 Draft Called to order by Chairman Mark Goodell at 6:39pm. Roll Call: Mark Goodell called the roll. Present: • Mark Goodell • Kathryn Ellgren • Sandra Gilmore • Zarita Hester • Steve Landis • Lars McCritty • Molly Merrimack • Dan Ryan • Arvid "Bud" Sorrenson Excused: • Donald Bumgarner • Stanley Leino • Robert Marvin Absent: • Gail Ebert Guests: • Alexander Koenig • Barb Sucui Adoption of Agenda: A motion was made by Chairman Goodell to add filling vacated positions to the agenda. Commissioner Gilmore seconded the motion, the motion passed. Agenda was adopted with amendment. Consideration of Minutes: The April 4th, 2021 minutes were adopted with a motion by Commissioner Merrimack and a second by Commissioner Gilmore. Motion passed. Election of Officers: Vice Chair: Commissioner Gilmore nominated herself and Commissioner Goodell seconded the motion. Commissioner Goodell moved to elect by acclimation. Commissioner Ryan seconded. Motion passed; Sandra Gilmore was elected Vice Chair for 2021. Audit Chair: Commissioner Landis nominated himself for audit chair. Commissioner Goodell seconded. Commissioner Goodell moved to elect by acclimation, Commissioner Ryan seconded. Motion passed; Steven Landis was elected Audit Chair for 2021. Old Business: a. Update on commissioner appointments Commissioner Goodell reread the letter that this commission had sent. Commissioner Ryan stated that the city council has not yet discussed the issues raised by the letter. He asked if Mr. Koenig could regale us with the events of the 2020 planning commission meeting. Alexander Koenig, Planning Commission Chair, spoke on the fact that Mayor Elliott showed up to personally eject members terms who had expired and replace them himself. Mr. Koenig states that he gets no communication from the mayor's office about when and if term limits have expired. The planning commission meeting that was scheduled for this evening was cancelled with no warning today. Commissioner Goodell asked Barb Suciu if there had been any updates on these concerns. She stated that this item does not appear to be planned for the next city council meeting, Barb Suciu also stated that the mayor is out recruiting people to join the commissions to obtain more diversity. She stated some frustration as well with the lack of communication on when these positions will be filled. This item has been on every city council agenda since it was sent and has been pushed. Mr. Koenig stated that there is a distinction between recruitment and selection and that the lack of timeliness on selection is creating frustration. Commissioner Goodell asked what the Charter Commission would like to do now. Commissioner Landis asked if the public at large is aware of this issue. Commissioner Goodell stated he was not aware of any public notice, however that members of all the commissions as well as the city staff are feeling the frustration. Commissioner Ryan stated that the issue was poor process and possibly malfeasance on the part of the mayor's office since he is the only person capable of selecting new commissioners. He raised concerns that the mayor's selectiveness is showing great disrespect to the citizens who have asked to continue to serve and have been ignored. Commissioner Ryan thought that having a Charter Commissioner write a letter to the editor raising awareness of this issue or posting something on social media about this issue. He specifically pointed to concerns about the opportunity site and lack of ability to have citizen engagement on that process. Commissioner Gilmore brought up the fact that none of these issues have broken the Charter. She thinks we should bring this to public attention but reminds us that the Charter does not cover commission appointments. Commissioner Hester asked how recruitment for positions have happened in the past. She also stated that diversity has not been meet or sought by the commissions. She asked for the commission to consider that POC have not felt welcome to join these commissions. Commissioner Hester also reiterated Commissioner Gilmore's statement that this issue has not broken the charter. She hesitates to put any of this on social media as it will be spun out of control. Commissioner Ellgren agreed with Commissioner Hester that diversity needed to be reached but feels that the empty positions place an undue burden on the commissions. She asked what the Charter Commissions goal was. Commissioner Landis stated that the fact that people were waiting to be told if they had been accepted while recruitment happened was unacceptable. He stated that putting something on social media or writing a letter to the editor could be done in a helpful, productive way- inviting new members rather than pointing blame over the empty positions. If that does not resolve the issue, then the Charter Commission should look at creating a standardized application process. Commissioner Sorrenson stated that this issue has been going on since 2019. Commissioner Goodell shared the status of vacancies and expired terms on the different commissions. Commissioner Gilmore wanted to propose a Recruitment Commission that would go out and actively recruit members. Commissioner Hester spoke about the fact that people not seeing these notices is not a lack of interest but is sometimes a lack of time. She agreed with the idea of having a recruitment commission. Commissioner Sorrenson had concerns about the Charter stepping into this issue as it is primarily under the city council's purview. Commissioner Landis informed the commission that he had posted on three different city specific social media sites with a simple message regarding joining the different commissions. Commissioner Goodell informed the commission that the Charter does not have the power to start new commissions. He did state that we can ask the city staff to push these options instead. He restated that this issue is something we cannot force, but that the city council needs to handle that. Commissioner Goodell asked if we should send a follow up letter. Commissioner Ryan restated that the city council has not been willing to push this issue with Mayor Elliott. He did agree that the city council is at fault for not resolving this issue. His concern is that there are many critical decisions upcoming on the opportunity site that will not be resolvable with the vacancies on the different commissions. Commissioner McCritty thanked the fellow commissioners for their comments and agreed that the vacancies were concerning. He wondered if we would be able to get Mayor Elliott to come to one of our meetings so we can discuss with him directly how to resolve these concerns. He stated that the search for diversity was great but not at the cost of the city's ability to function. Commissioner Goodell asked what the commission wanted to do about this. Commissioner Gilmore asked to clarify the Charter Commissions role in this. She asked if we could make our own committee the review the Charter with an eye towards amending the Charter to place a charter -based timeline concerning the filling of commission vacancies. Commissioner Goodell reiterated that no other city charter has processes laid out for appointments to commissions. Commission appointments are usually handled by the city council. Commissioner Ryan offered to take some of these questions to the city attorney. Barb Suciu reminded the Charter Commission that they could as citizens go to Monday's open forum meeting and raise those concerns themselves. Commissioner Sorrenson stated that the city council had promised to discuss this issue on Monday the 51h but had not done so. He reiterated that this issue should be handled by the city council. Commissioner Hester echoed Commissioner McCritty's desire to invite Mayor Elliott to one of our meetings. Commissioner Goodell asked if the Charter Commission wished to move forward on that. The question was raised about if the commissions could appoint their own members. Chairman Goodell Stated that all appointment were through the city council only. Chairman Goodell asked if we wanted to move forward with inviting the mayor. Commissioner Gilmore stated that she felt that asking the mayor to meet with us felt aggressive. Commissioner Ellgren agreed and stated that maybe it would be best if we left this issue in the hands it belonged in- the city council. Commissioner Hester again stated that she felt that speaking to the mayor in person might clear up some of the concerns without creating an adversarial position. Chairman Goodell offered to bring this issue up at the open forum on behalf of the Charter Commission. If that does not provide action, we could send a follow up letter and then if needed invite Mayor Elliott to one of our meetings- and to include the city council to discuss this with us. He stated again that the goal was to clarify and give transparency to the commission selection process. Barb Suciu offered to clarify the current process for application acceptance. She did state that we could amend the establishing resolution if necessary. Commissioner Sorrenson stated that those items were on the city website. Commissioner Sorrenson stated that he agreed with Chairman Goodells idea. He made a motion to have Chairman Goodell bring these concerns to the open forum. Commissioner Landis seconded. Motion passed. Commissioner Gilmore offered to attend with Chairman Goodell. The question was raised about whether those meeting are being held in person. Commissioner Ryan stated that tentatively they will be moving to in person, but Monday's open forum will be virtual. New Business: a. Discussion on mayoral assistant position This item had been tabled last meeting as no direct action had yet been taken. Chairman Goodell asked if that had changed. Commissioner Ryan stated that this item will be on Monday's agenda- it had been on the last work session agenda but had not actually been discussed. Commissioner Landis asked for clarification on how this decision would be made. Chairman Goodell stated that according to the Charter, the Mayor must communicate to city staff through the City manager- establishing an assistant would be counter to the charter's policy on communication. If this assistant were to be hired it would have to be approved by the city council. Commissioner Ryan clarified that there was concern over this as well because the assistant would be taking over responsibilities that are typically the mayor's job. This also raises legal issues in regard to the charter. He states that the mayor seems unaware of these issues, and that the city council should just say no. Commissioner Ryan states that if the mayor needs assistance in understanding the issues surrounding the agenda of city council meetings, he should work directly with the city manager. Commissioner Ryan also brought up how costly creating this position would be to the city-$63,700 as a starting salary. This position would also cut the city council out of creating policy for the city which is counter to the charter rules. Commissioner Sorrenson stated his concerns that the mayor needed so much more help than previous mayors but since the city charter states that all city employees must answer to the city manager, hiring an assistant for the mayor would be in direct violation to the charter. Commissioner Hester agreed and asked for a definition of the role of the assistant. Commissioner Sorrenson asked what our recourse should be if the city council does approve this position next meeting and if we should send a letter alerting the city council to the violation of the charter. Chairman Goodell stated that we had discussed asking the City Attorney for input on this issue and drafting a letter if it is of legal concern. Barb Suciu stated that when the packet was completed it would contain a memo from the city attorney regarding this issue. Chairman Goodell asked if we wanted to move this issue to the next meeting or drop it at this point. Commissioner Goodell stated that there wasn't much we could do at this point except to make sure that we ensure that any hire was held to the Charter's standards. Chairman Goodell offered to move this item to next meeting. This will be brought up again next meeting. b. Review meeting recording options Chairman Goodell asked Barb Suciu if these meetings were currently being recorded and if they would be available for access. She stated that these WebEx meeting were not currently being recorded. Live meetings can be recorded. Chairman Goodell asked for clarification if it was necessary, possible, and legal to record these meetings. Barb Suciu stated that city council meetings are currently recorded and broadcast. She stated that if we wished to have our meetings recorded, we would need to draft a request to be sent to Barb to be pushed forward. Commissioner Gilmore stated that she would agree to be recorded. Commissioner Ellgren agreed, stating that recording these meetings add a level of transparency that is necessary. Chairman Goodell stated that it would be possible. Commissioner Gilmore asked if that would then necessitate a recording device for in person meetings. Chairman Goodell stated that they could be. Commissioner Gilmore said that we should. Commissioner Sorrenson made a motion to draft a request recording of meetings. Commissioner Gilmore seconded. Motion passed. Commissioner Ellgren will draft that request. Adjournment: With a motion by Commissioner Gilmore and a second by Commissioner Sorrenson we adjourned the meeting at 8:30 pm. The next meeting is October 14th, 2021. Kathryn Ellgren Charter Commission Secretary