City Council Minutes 2014 02 24 SP

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City Council Special Meeting Minutes February 24, 2014 Page 9 of 11 City Attorney Light added in the City's PUD Hearing process, make sure all relevant information is brought to Council by staff or the applicant and not have Council introduce information gathered outside the hearing. Could a Council member use Google maps to look at the site? Mr. Krob recommended against it and explained if a Council member disclosed he is having a hard time visualizing the site, the applicant can come up with a map the whole Council can consider at the hearing. He recommended the rule of thumb: "what would a Judge do" - everyone sees the same thing. D. Constituent contacts in e-mail, electronic media times E-mail communications and social media contacts have made it even more problematic to avoid ex parte communications. Many elected officials make their official e-mail address available to the public. Upon receiving an e-mail, it may be difficult to determine whether it relates to a legislative matter or a quasi-judicial matter pending before the Council or Commission until you open it. Such communications require added vigilance in considering whether to open the communication, whether and how to respond to it, and disclosures that may need to be made to the remainder of Council regarding information received. E. Applying evidence presented to relevant criteria The task of a Council member sitting as quasi-judge is to determine whether the relevant criteria that apply to the particular application or matter (liquor license, rezoning request, etc.) have been satisfied based on the evidence and documents presented. COUNCIL QUESTIONS Should emails addressed to the City Council be forwarded to the City Manager? Special Counselor Krob stated they should be sent on to the City Manager and then staff can bring the email to the hearing and provide copies for everyone. Council member Keany stated that he generally responds to emails by thanking them for their email and requests they come to the meeting and present comments because he cannot consider anything sent via email. He copies the City Manager on the email response and the constituent email becomes a part of the packet and part of the public record. A question arose relative to Council investigating information independently. Does it apply to looking into the Codes or understanding the criteria before a meeting? Certainly reading criteria and codes is acceptable, but if there is a question on the criteria it should be directed to the City's legal or administrative staff and the information should be shared with the entire Council.