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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Council Worksession <br />November 1, 2016 <br />5:00 pm <br /> <br />Present: Mayor Valerie Johnson <br /> Councilmember Gina Bauman <br /> Councilmember Paul Jacobsen <br />Councilmember Brian Strub (arrived at 5:03 p.m.) <br />Councilmember Mary Burg <br />Absent: <br /> <br />Staff in Attendance: Dean Lotter <br /> <br />Guests in Attendance: Barb Strandell <br /> <br />Discuss Agenda for Team Building Retreat / Meet with Barb Strandell <br />Lotter reviewed the City’s strategic priorities report along with the agenda from last year’s team building <br />retreat. Staff requested the Council provide staff with direction on what agenda items should be addressed at <br />the team building retreat. <br /> <br />Barb Strandell introduced herself to the Council and discussed the numerous experiences she has had with City <br />Councils in the metro area. She stated she would be more than happy to assist the Council in creating norms of <br />behavior for the group. <br /> <br />Councilmember Burg discussed the importance of long term visioning for the City Council especially when <br />undergoing a Comprehensive Plan update. She looked forward to the Council having a healthy conversation at <br />the team building retreat. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jacobsen was interested in reviewing the strategic priorities again. He felt these priorities set <br />the pace for the Council for the coming year. He was in favor of review the Council Code of Conduct as well. <br />Ms. Strandell suggested a survey of the Council be taken prior to the retreat to address the Council’s priorities. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jacobsen supported this recommendation. <br /> <br />Councilmember Bauman wanted the Council to address the strategic goals keeping the future goals of the City <br />in mind. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strub wanted to address the gap between the City’s strategic priorities and the actual topics <br />being addressed by the City in the coming year. He wanted to be able to discuss the actionable items the <br />Council was working on with his neighbors. He wanted a more cohesive message of the City’s priorities in <br />order to create credibility. He believed the team building issues were critical given the fact one of the Council <br />members was suing the City. It was his opinion the Council had an aura of mistrust because of this. He feared <br />that the team building efforts would be ineffective if not all five members were truly working together for the <br />betterment of the City. He didn’t know if the retreat would be able to heal the cloud that covers City Hall. He <br />had strong reservations going into the election year on the lawsuit that had been brought to the City by <br />Councilmember Bauman. He felt a lot of action had been taken to undercut the credibility of the body through