First Council Meeting of 2011

Scott Neal, January 3, 2011 | Posted in Scott Neal

Tomorrow night is the first City Council meeting of 2011.  The agenda for that meeting is a unique combination of the very important, important, interesting, unusual and perfunctory.  Here are some examples:

Very Important:  Swearing in newly elected and re-elected City Council Members.

Important: Appointment of the Mayor Pro-Tem.

Interesting:  Receiving feasibility reports on new street improvement projects.

Unusual:  Appointment of the Weed Inspector (Minnesota State Law designates the Mayor of every incorporated city to be the official town weed inspector, which gives the Mayor the legal authority to require people to mow their yards and remove their noxious weeds and thistles.  Most Mayors in most Minnesota cities don’t really do this task any more, so a city employee is appointed as the Assistant Weed Inspector each year in order to write the letters to offending property owners, contract for removal of the offensive plant material and jump through all of the legal hoops to assess the costs associated with forced weed removal back to the offending property owner.  Yes, true story.)

Perfunctory:  Designation of Official Newspaper, Approving Facsimile Signatures, Designation of Director and Alternate Director for the Suburban Rate Authority.

If you’d like to see the agenda for yourself and see how you might catagorize the individual items, you can find it at the City’s website at this link: Council Packet.