2014-01-13 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

difficult to get people to serve on a commission and for most of last year the Parks Commission only had six of its seven members. He stated that it took a long time to fill the vacancy, and once it was filled another one occurred. So the one thing that he really wanted to encourage Council to look at is the issue of filling these vacancies. Mr. Mass stated that perhaps there is a need to look at the rules or to think about broadening the appointments to two per Council member, or even to appoint one and draw the others from a pool of residents who want to serve who are not specific to any ward or individual Council member, but whatever the case he would strongly suggest that Council begin to think of other options. Mr. Mass also encouraged Council to give consideration to implementing a shorter timeframe to fill vacancies, for example 30 days as opposed to 60 days, because in his opinion, this is really a serious issue that needs to be addressed in order to maintain comprehensive commissions. Corinne Darvish, 8341 Delmar Ms. Darvish stated that she thinks that this task force is a wonderful idea and has two volunteers that she would like to present to Council. She stated that she is a real estate attorney with more than fifteen years experience in municipal law, including development, and Mr. Jacques Darvish, who spoke just a little while ago, is her father, who is a civil structural engineer that is licensed in the State of Missouri. Ms. Darvish stated that she believes that these are two different professions that would be able to assist the City in this project. b. Maria’s Law requested by Ms. Carr and Mr. Crow (see attachments L-4(b) Ms. Carr stated that this is actually called Maria’s Law, by way of slang, and it is a State statute that has to do with the way that votes are taken. She stated that the statute, which states that a member may vote electronically, has already passed the legislature and therefore the City does not have an option. Ms. Carr stated that she believes that Council needs to make provisions to endorse this new legislation because in her opinion it would be a benefit. Mr. Kraft stated that he has read the legislation, but he is not a lawyer, so what he would suggest is that Council conducts a Study Session about this with staff and the City attorney. He stated that while the law clearly allows this type of action, what is unclear is whether it mandates that you must have this. And if the City is going to do it, there has to be some reasonableness about how it is done. For example, what is a quorum in an electronic age? Mr. Kraft stated that if this is something that Council wants to pursue then he believes that there is a need to find out what the law really says and whether you have to have a physical quorum present before a person is allowed to participate by video conference. Mr. Crow stated that he does hope that at some point in time his colleague will treat his other colleagues with a greater deal of respect rather than the tone that is currently being exhibited. He stated that while he is happy to have Ms. Forster prepare a pathway for Council to follow, the fact is that this is a statute that has been passed and as someone who does travel a great deal for business it would seem to make sense. He stated that it is his belief that many of the boards and commissions are now allowing for electronic attendance at meetings and he candidly doubts that this is something that is going to be a regular occurrence at a City Council meeting. Mr. Crow stated that he does think that it is time for Council to address this and if the City Manager or the City Clerk wants to take the lead on this, along with the City Attorney, then that would be fine with him. Ms. Carr advised Council that the City Attorney had already weighed in. She stated that if Council members would check their mail from several months ago they would see that she had asked a series of questions and that the City Attorney had answered quite clearly with 10