Letter to editor: Councilor sees ‘mulligan’ editorial in a different light
To the editor,
It is true that I am leading an effort to change the way that we appoint people to our boards and commissions and shorten the length of terms.
It is true that I struck up a conversation with a citizen of Glencoe at Gert and Erma’s as to whether or not he was aware of openings on our boards and commission. Mr. Mueller calls this recruiting and doesn’t think elected officials should be spreading the word this way. I totally disagree and I’m sure my fellow councilors would agree. It is our responsibility to keep the public informed. Not everyone subscribes to the newspaper or knows about our city website. There, now you do.
What I found was that we were getting members of other boards and commissions applying and being approved for seats because nobody else applied. We just weren’t getting the word out. This mission includes posting information through our website, social media, and of course the newspaper. We will also broadcast on KGLB radio right here in Glencoe.
I am authoring an ordinance change that is in the works that will limit one person per board. This in turn, will free up vacancies for community members who have shown interest in these positions and it allows present board members to stay focused on one board and do a great job.
These coffee shop conversations have been very valuable in gathering information for this change.
So has my research on what other cities are doing. For instance, the city of Faribault has instructed city administration to publicize openings for all boards and commissions for which terms are expiring. We have expiring seats on all of our boards and commissions in January. Maybe we will see those publicized.
Windom has a great page describing “what’s expected of a member of board/commission/committee member?” It includes statements like, “It has been council policy not to permit an individual to serve on two boards, commissions at the same time.”
Councilor Schrupp provided research on cities including Chaska and Waconia that have three-year terms. The majority of my researched cities have three-year terms also for like boards and commissions.
Now, in regards to the comments Mr. Mueller made about my motives with the park board applicants or any board applicants for that matter, he suggests that I would “recruit” applicants who would side with me. Where do I start on that one? I spoke with several individuals but only one actually applied for a position. One of the others saw it in the paper and another heard about it through one of the city councilors.
Mr. Mueller was not present at the Dec. 16 park board meeting. Yet he writes about it. The City Administrator, Mark Larson and I were. Councilor Neid was present as the liaison to the board.
This is the part where you really have to pay attention as I dispel Mr. Mueller’s contention that we pick these volunteers who will “beholding” to us/me on these boards.
At this Park Board meeting, the fifth item on the agenda was to discuss the council liaison assigned to the park board.
Mike Long who is the chairman, stated that they wanted the mayor to assign a new liaison who would vote for their recommendations. He wanted Schrupp or Lemke. Remember the Nov. 18 council meeting when Councilor Neid made a motion to put James Eiden on the park board and councilors Schrupp and Lemke voted an emphatic no? However, the motion passed with Robeck, Neid and me voting yes.
Remember that? Now jump ahead to the Dec. 16 park board meeting and the vote to replace councilor Neid. How did everyone vote?
I’ll just tell you that the new guy that Councilor Neid recommended for the park board and the three of us voted for and Schrupp and Lemke said no to, well, he voted yes to getting rid of Councilor Neid.
Now we’ll see if the mayor sets a bad precedence by giving in to that type of a request from a nonpolitical board of volunteers. And that’s it on the part of the story.
How’s that Mr. Mueller for dispelling that conspiracy theory of yours?
What else did you say that needs correcting? Ah here’s one. “The advisory boards study issues in greater depth than the city council does.” Boy, you don’t know any of us councilors very well with a statement like that. I personally spend many hours researching all kinds of issues effecting the city.
Also, not all of the recommendations from our boards and commissions are accepted by this council. This does not imply that we don’t take board/commission recommendations seriously. We have to take many things into consideration when weighing all the information from our boards and our own research.
I hope that I’ve cleared up some of Mr. Mueller’s concerns regarding my intentions.
See you at the coffee shop.
Milan Alexander,
Glencoe City Council
