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Brooklyn Park council weighs limits on remote attendance after state law changes
Summary
Councilmembers sought legal clarification and asked staff for a work session after the state amended remote-participation rules; topics included the 3-day notice, the existing local cap of six remote meetings per year (three per quarter) and whether the city can retain local limits.
Councilmembers revisited the city’s policy on elected-official attendance by interactive technology after staff briefed them on recent state law changes.
City Attorney Jim Thomson told the Council that statute changes removed some prior requirements that a remote participant be at a location open to the public; because the law changed, staff recommended aligning the Elected Officials Rules of Procedure and Code of Conduct with the updated statute. Thomson also said the law still required a three-day notice that a member would participate remotely and that the Council's locally adopted limits on how many remote meetings a member may attend (six per year, not more than three per quarter) remained a council-level policy and could be retained.
Council Member Nicole Klonowski challenged the logic of retaining a three-day notice if members did not have to disclose their physical location and asked whether the Council could adopt a stricter local rule than state law. Thomson replied he would prefer time to provide a formal opinion because the statute was recently amended and the interplay between local rules and state law was not fully settled. Council Member Christian Eriksen said he supported keeping the local limits as a general rule to promote in-person attendance, while Council Member Tony McGarvey questioned whether the limits remained useful given the state changes.
Mayor Hollies Winston said safety concerns had motivated earlier flexibility and that the Council should schedule a work session to reconcile transparency, safety and resident expectations. City Manager Jay Stroebel was asked to prepare a staff analysis and the City Attorney to provide a legal opinion for a future work session and council decision.
Next steps: staff will prepare legal analysis and policy options for a Council work session; Council signaled interest in further discussion before changing local rules.
