City Council Meeting Date: July 1, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Sara Hoffman, Deputy City Clerk/Executive Assistant
Title
Consider First Reading of Ordinance 1081 Amending City Code Chapter 2, Related to City Boards and Commissions.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council will Consider First Reading of Ordinance 1081 Amending City Code Chapter 2, Related to City Boards and Commissions.
Summary Report:
At the May 20th City Council work session, the Council received an update on the board and commission governance work and provided feedback on a draft amendment to code. The Council expressed no concerns over the attached redlined draft of code updates. Council also discussed the roles of Council members on boards and commissions and the appointment timeline. Other topics discussed in the meeting, such as the consolidation or eliminations of boards and commissions, will be discussed further as part of the governance work and will be part of phase 3 of code updates, if changes are identified. However, staff responses to concerns brought up by Council are included in this staff report.
Code Updates
An attached redline of code updates identified by Council, staff, and the City Attorney is attached (attachment 2). A summary of some of the changes is as follows:
* Section 2 - Minor changes to the standardized section of code approved in 2024 by Council (ordinance 1060). These include solidifying the board and commission appointment timeline and other long-practiced policies, such as term limits.
* Section 4 - Currently, some boards and commissions were required, in code, to report annually to the Council, while others were not. To ensure standardization and to solidify our current practice of compiling an annual report of board/commission activities to present at the yearly board and commission training, an "Annual Reports to Council" section has been added. Per state statute, the EDA, HRA, Hos...
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