Trending
FAIRMONT-- The Fairmont City Council held a workshop on Monday afternoon that went over roles and responsibilities with members of the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC). Council members present spent a portion of the time talking about communication, best practices and proper procedure.
Council Members Britney Kawecki and Randy Lubenow were not present for the workshop.
Aimee Gourlay, a collaboration services manager with the league who works on conflict resolution and problem solving with councils, was accompanied by Josie Rosene, a staff attorney with the league. Gourlay said that the workshop is a fairly new thing they've been doing with other cities too.
Gourlay prefaced the workshop by saying that while they were both trained in law, they were not the city's attorney. She also pointed out that Fairmont is a charter city so that some of the roles and responsibilities are laid out in the charter.
"Our goal as we understand it after talking to Jason (Baker) is that you've already done some priority setting as a group and so now this it to think about how to you most effectively and efficiently implement it and a lot of that has to do with who does what," Gourlay explained.
She added that they've found some challenges between the roles, too.
"One of the biggest things is time is a valuable resource," Gourlay said. "One of the things I've learned from watching meetings and talking to people is, if there are ways to be more efficient and make better use of your time then you get more done and move through more of your priority list."
Council Member Jay Maynard said he thought the council would benefit from a common understanding of the council's role in city operation and the lack thereof.
"We have some council members who disagree on the role the council should take. I was hoping that they would be here," Maynard said.
Gourlay said that Kawecki had called her prior to the workshop and said she wouldn't be at the meeting, but that she would be watching. Lubenow said at a past council meeting that he would not attend the workshop until city staff takes customer service training.
When asked what some specific concerns are, Council Member James Kotewa said he thought they should act as a council and not as individuals and that there were communication problems that came along with that.
Council Member Wayne Hasek said he wanted to be able to move past an item that was voted on, even when it wasn't agreed on.
"For me, it's trying to, not speed the meeting along, but when things get off track, try to bring them back on. For me, that's something that I try to get better at," said Mayor Lee Baarts.
Staying focused in meetings was an early area that those present agreed that they'd like to work on.
Rosene then went over some roles and responsibilities and why they are important and how things should generally look in a city like Fairmont. She shared that she had looked at the charter to see what form of government Fairmont is, which is a Mayor-Council Plan or Weak Mayor Council Plan.
"Overall when I talk about roles and responsibilities, I'm really just talking about who is responsible for making these big city decisions, who is responsible for carrying them out and then who is responsible for the results," Rosene said.
With the form of government, she said that the city council has authority over legislation, policy making and other city initiatives. When it comes to the city administrator, she said they're given a lot of oversight over city administration and that they have a lot of authority as well and can often hire or appoint employees.
"You'll also have roles as individual council members. Obviously you don't really have any specific power or authority as individuals but you still have a role to fulfill. I know this city has wards so that's one role is representing constituents in your ward," Rosene said.
Speaking of individual council members, Rosene touched on authority.
Gourlay added that one thing they're seeing right now is issues with social media and speech.
"Everybody has free speech and can say what they want. If someone is saying something and representing themselves as a city council person, there can be questions about the role there and just being very clear about when someone is having their own opinion versus speaking on behalf of the city council," Gourlay said.
Rosene also talked about why roles and responsibilities matter.
"It supports better decision making, provides greater accountability, reduces conflict, increases efficiency and enhances the trust the public has in the city in general," she said.
After awhile Gourlay checked in again and asked if there was anything those present wanted to talk about and Kotewa said, "Well there's always communication."
He said there was a fear of violating open meeting laws and concerns about how to communicate effectively with the city administrator.
Baarts said, "It seems like either the agenda item passes or fails and then two weeks later or four weeks later, that item pops back up."
In continuing the conversation about communication, Hasek shared some concerns about how privileged information that comes from the city attorney is being shared with the public.
Gourlay said that that could be a code of conduct violation.
"It is a code of conduct violation," said Kotewa.
Speaking of emails, Baarts also pointed out that a large number of emails are data requested.
"We could almost hire staff to just go over the requests for requests," said Baarts.
Gourlay said that sometimes emails aren't the best form of communication. She said that verbal check-ins and information sharing is high among cities that feel like things are going smoothly.
"Probably from a conflict perspective, my advice would be over-communicate," Gourlay said.
On communication, Baker said from the staff side, in his three months of being with the city, he's seen a lot of information flowing in and out of the building everyday.
"For council to consider, it does eat up a lot of our time trying to make those communications, myself included," Baker said. "We're getting so many requests from council members, from citizens, building people, business owners, on top of the things that pop up each day and the projects we're working on. That constant communication wears on staff," he said.
Kotewa asked what a reasonable amount of communication was between council and the city administrator and staff.
"Their time is important. They have a lot to do," Kotewa said.
Gourlay agreed and said, "In addition to council's priorities, there's a lot in running the city."
To close out the meeting, Gourlay spent some time talking about how to approach complex decision making.