9 Commission LiaisonCITYOF
C SEN
690 City Center Drive
PO Box 147
Clmnhasse,, Mi,,esota 55317
Phone
952.937.1900
General Fax
952.937.5739
Engi, eering Deparo, e,t Fax
952.937.9152
Building Departme,t Fax'
952.934.2524
~b Site
www. dlcha,hasse,, mn.,s
MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
Mayor
City Council
Scott A. Botcher, City Manager
DATE:
February 21,2001
SUB J:
Commission Liaison Recommendations
There have been times in the past, most recently accentuated by the inter-
commission communication process used involving the Pulte development,
where it appears as if communication of the municipal position by the Council
to its advisory commissions was at times lacking. Having been here long
enough to notice, it appears that this issue, similar to other dilemmas we have
faced, can be traced to one of organizational structure within the municipal
corporation. While some of what I am about to say may seem dreadfully
obvious to some, it appears some of the following statements have not been
implemented even if you assume that these things are patently obvious to the
governing bodies of the City in the past.
In its simplest form, our commissions exist primarily for one purpose--they
exist to assist the Council in performing its duties as the governing body of the
City. They exist to act on behalf of, and at the direction of, the governing body
that established these commissions, and as their creator, the Council establishes
the policy parameters within which they desire each one of these committees to
work. Without the clear establishment of this relationship, and without the
understanding of these same said parameters, one of two things can happen:
1) the advisory commissions can do their work with a lack of direction, making
their job more difficult; and 2) the work product the Council ultimately receives
from these advisory commissions will not have served the purpose or met the
need of the governing body, which is (was) the purpose of the commission's
existence in the first place.
The question then is how to create a structure whereby there is an understanding
on the part of both the governing body and the advisory commissions as to their
roles, and secondly, as to the acceptable policy parameters within which the
advisory commissions should consider specific issues as determined by the
governing body of the City. Although I do not claim to have the perfect answer,
the Mayor has asked me to share with you my thoughts on how we can address
this structural issue.
Gtv of Chanhassen. A crowi,~ comnmnin, with clean lakes, attahn, schools, a cha,nin.~ dow,town, th~ivin~ businesses, and beautihd ,arks. A ~reat o/ace to live. work. a,d
Mayor & City Council
Februao~ 21, 2001
Page 2
In Delafield (which is, for the new Council members, where I worked for five
years prior to coming here), we had a system in place xvhereby each Council
member was assigned a position on each one of the commissions in a liaison-
type relationship. These Council members sat as full members of each one of
the advisory commissions and did vote. This served multiple purposes, two of
which I have mentioned before. First, it created an 'explicit conduit through
which direction and communication could flow from the Council to the
commission and back again. In this manner, the commissions heard directly
fi'om a Council member any communication necessary or desirable by the
commission as part of their deliberation. Secondly, it established for these
advisolT' bodies the policy parameters within which the Council desired each
one of these commissions to work. As an example, the Council may decide that
certain things are acceptable as a matter of policy within park and recreation or
land use areas within the City of Chanhassen. The establishment of that policy
then could be fully and clearly communicated first hand by this liaison to the
advisory commission so that when they were considering issues, they kmew
clearly the parameters under which the governing body of this city wished them
to review issues prior to reporting to the City Council. As I said, it does the
Council no good to have commissions do work outside the policy parameters in
a fashion that is unacceptable to the governing body. Additionally, it is
fi'ustrating to the commission members to put in the time and effort without
some sort of direction from the Council. You. as a Council member, owe that to
them and certainly the creation of this type of relationship facilitates that.
Additionally, given the special role of the Planning Commission within growth
communities (and Delafield was a growth community too), the Mayor, by
ordinance, served as Chair of the Planning Commission. It is thought that this
role as Chair helped to further communicate to the Planning Commission public
policy as established by the Council to the Planning Commission.
It goes without saying that it is incumbent upon each of the Council members
who serve as the liaison to represent the interests of Council. It is not their job
to represent their interests. It is their job to represent the interests of the
governing body. In cases where there is not a firm position on the part of the
Council, it is their job to represent the varied perspectives that may exist on the
Council. I personally have seen people do an outstanding job of representing
diverse policy perspectives to advisory commissions.
Additionally, one of the issues that Council may wish to consider is whether or
not they wish to continue to deal with some of the land use issues they currently
do. My rationale is as follows: at the current time, there appears to be, outside
of the appointment process, a pretty distinct line between the actions of the
Planning Commission and the City Council. This is not meant to be an
adversarial statement; I am simply saying that we have two distinct bodies
Mayor & City Council
February 21, 2001
Page 3
considering and deliberating issues that come before them. Suffice it to say, the
Council workload appears to be growing every single week. Additionally, I
have been nudging (okay, perhaps pushing) the Council to try to get up to that
30,000 ft. policy level, thereby making policy to guide and lead this community
instead of getting so bogged down with detail that we burn up valuable time and
energy dealing with issues like 8 ft. deck variances hs opposed to issues of
housing and transportation et.al, within Chanhassen. Part of the "trade" is that
the City Council would not deal with many of the rudimentary land use
approvals. The Council would not deal with variances, instead focusing on large
conceptual issues, such as approving PUDs, development agreements, general
development plans in putting together a PUD, etc. We would not, for example,
approve individual site plans for buildings within the PUD, the rationale being
that the PUD is in existence, the development agreement is in existence, and the
Planning Commission, especially given the communication through the 'liaison
to the Planning Commission, could just as well decide whether or not a specific
submittal met the standards implied within a development agreement and within
a PUD as the Council. Frankly, it is my experience that Planning Commissions
do an outstanding job in applying the template created to review the individual
submittal.
Chanhassen has a history, however, of the City Council being involved (I might
say bogged down) in detail work. I don't know if you all are feady to let go of
some of this, but I throw it out there because I've seen it work and I want'to
continue to encourage you, again, to lead at the broadest and highest possible
level. You are here to lead this community, and again, these commissions exist
to do much of the detail, research, and public hearing work for you, giving a
broader audience to your constituents so that when an issue comes before you,
you can deal with these issues from a broader policy based perspective instead
of counting trees or setback footage.
I apologize for the length of this memo and I am more than happy to discuss it
with you on Monday evening. It is my understanding from my conversations
with the Mayor that this issue on Monday night is simply one for discussion.
The Council can communicate to her their initial thoughts, feelings, and
concerns at that time. If you have any questions about this, please contact me
directly and I will be more than happy to talk. Thank you.
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