By Clark Natalie

The Public Comment portion of the April 9 Harris City Council meeting, Lisa Jorgenson expressed concern, as she has in the past, over the minutes being revised for content before being approved.

Don Cardinal asked about the status of the report on the Fire Relief Funds. It was expected that the report would be done shortly.

Cardinal also let the council know that members of the Park Board would help pick up some of the accumulated trash that is now becoming visible as the snow melts. If the city will provide trash bags, as the Park Board members take their daily walks, they would pick items up as they made their rounds.

Also during this time, a process server served summons and complaints on the mayor, the councilmembers and city attorney Pete Grundhoefer accepted the summons for the city as a whole.

No further comments were made about the summons until after the meeting. At that time, Grundhoefer said it was his intentions to present the summons to the League of Minnesota Cities insurance Department for their review before making a statement.

Through other sources, a copy of the summons shows that the city is being served by Kenneth Kabanuk, the former property manager for Big Daddy's. Kabanuk is acting as his own attorney. The summons alleges that Kabanuk was slandered by the malicious dissemination of false accusations and statements. The document goes on to specifically identify each accusation.

Insurance waiver

One of the items on the regular agenda that the council dealt with was an insurance liability waiver. In the past, the city has always signed this waiver. Grundhoefer suggested that they postpone action on this item until he was able to discuss the waiver with the League of Minnesota Cities insurance department.

During Grundhoefer's staff report, sufficient information was obtained to verify that Chisago County purchased the land for the station in Harris for $3,215.13 and verification that those funds have been paid was provided.

Grundhoefer also asked that the meeting be extended for a closed session to discuss pending litigation concerning the water and sewer hookups.

Highlands agreement

The development agreement for Highlands of Harris was provided for the council's review and could be presented for action at the first meeting in May. Councilman John Pelant had questions concerning development agreements. Pelant asked about checking on the financial history of developers. He was concerned that projects would get partially completed and the developers would abandon the project, leaving the city to complete them. Grundhoefer explained that past references could be checked. But it was pointed out that developers usually create a separate entity for each development they create. This is common practice, even for substantially large, reliable developers. Grundhoefer also noted that the development agreements have a default agreement section, which is secured by a Letter of Credit. The Letter of Credit is provided by the developer's bank to supply funds to finish each project.

The second meeting in May would normally fall on May 28. With that being Memorial Day, it was decided to cancel that meeting and still have only one meeting in June.