7.0. SR 08-29-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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. mendatlons. Committees may not make decisions on behalf of the councll. Com- mittees are .ubject to the .ame rules IUI the full caUDell UDder the open meetint law. In many cities. Ills routine for the councll to automatically approve a commlllee's recommendations If the committee has done a thorough and competent job. But. the councll's final decision. not the committee's recommen- dation, binds the city. To 1llustrate. committees may not enter Into a contract or employ workers even If a speclflc motion of the council delegates such power to them. Y' t Salaries of mayor and council members The council. by ordinance. fixes the salarles of the mayor and council mem- bers. The ordInance takes elTect on the date set In the ordinance but not unUl after the next succeeding regular City election. There Is no referendum on the .. CHAPTER 6 ordinance. by petition or otherwise. 69 Until the council adopts an ordinance flx1ng salaries. previous salaries remain In e1Tecl. &llar1es may be 011 nil allllllnl or mOlllhly lump sum or a per diem basis. The per diem may be payable for each regular meeting. for each regular and special meeting. or for each day's servJce. Unless the ordinance provldes otherwise. a lump sum salary covers special meetings. 70 An employer must allow a city council member to take Ume off from regular employment to attend council meetings. 71 When the council member takes time off Without pay. the employer must make an effort to allow the employee to make up the time With other hours when the employee Is available. Iron Range cities have the authOr1ty to make per diem payments to council members of $25 per day. not to exceed $250 per year. for absences from the city while on olTlclal business. r.z Citizen Involvement . One way to Increase positive feelings about government Is to Increase citizen Involvement. Cltyw:lde or neighborhood Committees. specJal project review committees. and even block organizations are some of the committees cropping up In many cities. In many cases. the council has formed or encouraged these citizen committees. They have saved time for public olTiclals and have made contributions which could only occur through citizen participation. Council members have found that IgnOr1ng citizen concerns can result In their removal from office at the next election or In the defeat of a program or actlvlty through citizen opposition. Although city officials cannot. In most cases. delegate decision-making authority to Citizen groups. they can use citizens in advlsOIY roles. ThIs technique works. however. only If the counclll1stens to the advlce. If the councll doesn't follow the advlce of the committee. it ~hould give Lf t2,UII understandable reasons for taking other action. When a councll forms a citizens' advl- sory body. It should layout the ground rules for its actlvltles and point out that In the absence of clear statutory authority to delegate responslb1l1ty. the council must, by law. make the final decisions. State law allows. and In some cases requires. cIty councils to delegate deci- sion-making power to certain Independent boards and commissions. Independent citizen boards and commissions Independent citizen boards and com- missions can help a1levlate the councIl's workload. The amount of dIscretionary power the council can give to such bodies varies. In some Instances. such as a utilities com- mlsslon.the statutes give the commission all discretionary authOr1ty necessary to 415 1/ 91