June 7, 1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Session 1309, Minutes Page 11 June 7, 1982 basic City responsibilities. Mr. Ollendorff said he believed all questions have been answered and differences of opinion resolved, except for those items which mem- bers of the Council indicated they wished to discuss further. Discussion on each item follows. There were no revenue items to be discussed. Legislative Services (page C-4). Under Contractual Services, 2.06 Travel and 9.03 Memberships were discussed, specifically membership in the National League of Cit- ies (NLC). Mr. Ollendorff clarified that dues are paid through May, 1983, and if Council wished to renew its membership next year, the budget would be left as is, since those dues are already included. Mr. Levy said he reached the conclusion that University City should remain a direct member of the NLC. In order to gain the fullest benefit for the City from the na- tional meetings, he said the Council might like to structure some specific plans, such as assigning a councilmember the task of reporting on a seminar, or some other way of assuring that benefit accrues to the City from a councilmember's attendance. He felt the exchange of ideas at meetings of this type may be extremely valuable to the Council and the City. Mayor Mooney interjected that attendance at the national meetings and seminars was still possible by virtue of the fact that University City is a member of the St. Louis County Municipal League and the Missouri Municipal League, and it has indirect member status through those organizations. He noted that paying the dues had nothing to do with attending national meetings of the NLC. Not paying dues prohibited individual councilmembers from-holding office in the or- ganization and from being a member of a steering committee. Mrs. Metcalfe said she was not opposed to the concept of personal growth and learn- ing for councilmembers, but she was concerned about what citizens thought when pro- grams are cut, but legislators do not cut their own budget. She said the Council was asking all departments to tighten up, and actual cuts will be made in some cases, but the Council had not considered cutting its own budget. She suggested that next year's NLC dues not be paid, thereby making University City an indirect member of the NLC, which still enables councilmembers to attend meetings, but not to serve as officers or on steering committees. She noted that both Mr. Adams and Mrs. Thompson will have served several years on their committees at the end of the dues year. She noted there were other approaches which could be taken to economize, perhaps by cut- ting the travel budget directly. However, $1,500 would be saved by not paying dues, plus the more than $2,000 which was spent last year for travel by those on NLC com- mittees. Mayor Mooney concurred with Mrs. Metcalfe's comments, stating he had discontinued direct membership in the National Conference of Mayors for the same reason. He em- phasized again that direct membership was not necessary to take advantage of the seminars and other educational activities of the NLC. Mrs. Thompson said she did not understand why the City's direct membership in the NLC should be dropped after being in it for so many years. Mrs. Metcalfe replied that the City did not have the same resources now as it has had in the past, and there should be a sharing in the cutbacks needed to balance the budget. Mr. Adams, in response to the Mayor's comment about how rapidly NLC dues had esca- lated, said that dues had not risen very much if inflation was factored in. He