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Session 1308, Minutes Page 11 May 24, 1982 City also belonged to the Missouri Municipal League and the St. Louis County Muni- cipal League, and he thought those memberships should be continued since it seemed that most of the action in the future would take place on the state and local, rath- er than national, levels. Mr. King said he hoped the Council would consider what leaving the NLC would mean--giving up the opportunity to lobby Congress and the ad- ministration in Washington. He said that University City should be part of any lob- bying group which worked for the benefit of cities. Mayor Mooney reiterated that he thought direct lobbying of congressional members was more effective than trying to work through the NLC. Mr. Lieberman said University City is one of 29 Missouri cities which are direct members of the NLC. He felt the City has had and still does have a leadership role in the NLC. In addition to the 29 votes, the Missouri Municipal League has 20 votes, giving Missouri considerable clout during election of leaders, officers, boards of directors and voting on national policy. In response to Mayor Mooney, Mr. Lieberman said there were 443 cities, towns and villages who were members of the Missouri Municipal League, but that not all of them were qualified to be di- rect member cities of the NLC. Mr. Lieberman said that he also reads the newslet- ter, which brings a focus on municipal matters that was difficult to get in other ways. He agreed with Mr. Adams that membership on steering committees was impor- tant to establishing certain trends of policy for the NLC. Mrs. Elsie Glickert, 6712 Etzel, asked to address the Council. She wished to know if the NLC had moved into its new office building. Mayor Mooney said they had, and they assessed member cities a large amount of money to pay for this building, in ad- dition to the regular dues. Mrs. Metcalfe said it should also be borne in mind that talking about membership in the NLC involves much more than the $1500 dues. There is a travel budget associat- ed with participation on the steering committees, which increases the amount expend- ed considerably. She thought the most valuable part of the national meetings was attending the seminars, which she felt were superb and which could be of great di- rect benefit to University City through what councilmembers learn and bring back with them, but she noted it was not necessary to be a member to attend the seminars. She said that after giving the matter considerable thought, she was opposed to the City's membership at this time. She said she was somewhat disillusioned at what she has seen as an abuse by the Council and felt that was probably true for many former Councils, as well. She'said she would like to see the Council attend the seminars on a staggered basis, returning with information that can be shared with the rest of the Council and which benefitted University City. Mr. Levy asked for clarification concerning Mrs. Metcalfe's comments. She said it was her personal observation that the Council had not taken full advantage of and taken the time to follow through on attending the seminars and following up on what was learned at the seminars, noting that she felt this was the best potential benefit of attending national meetings, but does not require direct membership. In addition, the cost of being on a steering committee added a considerable amount to what is paid in dues. Mrs. Thompson said it disturbed her that an analysis had not been made concerning the City's membership in the NLC (the advantages and disadvantages), and that she would like to see that in writing before any action is taken concerning membership. She would like a comparison of the last few years with the years preceding in order