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Nowthen City Council Special with LMC meeting, July 9, 2025

Special City Council

Wednesday, July 9, 2025 · 6:00 PM

This meeting on the city's website ↗

Agenda

Open PDF ↗

What was on the agenda.

Packet

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The supporting materials the board reviewed.

Minutes

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The official record of what happened.

One-line summary

The City Council held a special worksession with the League of Minnesota Cities on teambuilding, roles, responsibilities, open meeting-law practices, staff communication, and administrator role clarification, with only agenda approval and adjournment motions taken.

What was on the agenda

3 items as recorded in the agenda, packet, and minutes, each with a short summary of what was at issue.

  1. 1Call to Order

    Call to Order, Pledge of Allegiance, Roll Call, and Approve Agenda.

    The Council opened the special worksession, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, completed roll call with all council members present, and approved the agenda as presented by a 5-aye vote.

    The meeting was opened, roll call was taken, and the agenda was approved as presented by 5 ayes.

    • agenda approval
    Approved
    p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Agenda (2025-07-09)1\. Call to Order · Pledge of Allegiance . Roll Call · Approve Agendap. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Mayor Hybben called the session to order at 6:00 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance. Roll call by Interim City Administrator Johnson. Present: Mayor Hybben, Council Member Breyen, Council Member Glaser, Council Member Swenson, and Council Member Rainville. Absent: None.p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)MOTION BY COUNCIL MEMBER BREYEN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE TO APPROVE AGENDA AS PRESENTED. 5 AYES, MOTION CARRIED.

  2. 2Discussion with the League of Minnesota Cities on Teambuilding and Roles and Responsibilities

    Discussion with the League of Minnesota Cities on teambuilding and roles and responsibilities.

    Amy Gourlay of the League of Minnesota Cities led a workshop on council and staff roles, team development, decision-making, communication, conflict resolution, and governance versus management responsibilities. The session was informational and no formal council action was taken on the workshop content.

    The Council discussed open meeting-law constraints, whether work sessions should be recorded, and the tradeoff between transparency and allowing freer workshop dialogue. The minutes state the Council agreed this should be revisited during future policy planning.

    Natalie Johnson asked whether her weekly update emails had the right level of detail. Council members said they appreciated the transparency but preferred a shorter, higher-level summary with notable operational issues or resident-facing matters highlighted.

    Council and staff discussed preparing a formal job description and salary action for Natalie Johnson’s interim administrator role. Johnson said she had not received a formal job description and was compiling one from the duties she performs, while the Council encouraged her to draft it based on actual responsibilities so a formal resolution could follow.

    Council members and staff reflected that trust, communication, and teamwork had improved since the start of the year, while also recognizing that healthy disagreement is part of good governance. Gourlay encouraged the Council to document norms, expectations, and onboarding materials for future elected officials and staff.

    The Council held the workshop and discussed roles, team dynamics, open meeting law, recorded work sessions, weekly staff updates, the interim administrator job description and salary process, and council-staff working relationships; no formal vote was recorded on this item.

    • LMC workshop
    • roles and responsibilities
    • team building
    • open meeting law
    • staff updates
    • administrator job description
    Discussion only
    p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Agenda (2025-07-09)2\. Discussion with the League of Minnesota Cities on Teambuilding and Roles and Responsibilities.p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)The meeting was called for the purpose of a workshop with the League of Minnesota Cities focused on team building and roles and responsibilities. Amy Gourlay, Collaboration Services Manager with the League's Insurance Trust division, led the session.p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Gourlay introduced several models for understanding team dynamics, including the GRPI model and Patrick Lencioni's "Five Dysfunctions of a Team." She emphasized that successful teams align first around shared goals before focusing on roles, interpersonal interactions, and communication processes.p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Discussion ensued about open meeting laws, the use of recorded workshops, and how councils can effectively collaborate while maintaining transparency.p. 2Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Natalie Johnson sought feedback on the frequency and level of detail in her weekly update emails. Council Members expressed appreciation for her transparency but suggested a more concise summary format moving forward.p. 2Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Council and staff also briefly discussed the process of updating Natalie Johnson's job description and salary. Johnson stated that she had never received a formal job description and was in the process of compiling one, noting that her current role blends multiple responsibilities previously held by different individua…p. 2Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)The Council thanked Amy Gourlay for her insights and agreed the session was helpful in strengthening their team dynamic.

  3. 3Adjourn

    Adjourn.

    The Council ended the worksession after a motion to adjourn by Council Member Swenson and second by Council Member Rainville. The signed minutes and transcript disagree on the adjournment time.

    A motion to adjourn was made and seconded, and the meeting adjourned. The signed minutes state 9:03 p.m.; the transcript closing states 7:32.

    • adjournment
    Approved
    p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Agenda (2025-07-09)3\. Adjournp. 2Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)MOTION TO ADJOURN BY COUNCIL MEMBER SWENSON, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE.p. 3Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)The meeting was adjourned at 9:03 p.m.1:21:24Anything else for training or for group, council member Ryan? Yes, uh motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Second. Let's adjourn the meeting. Thank you. 7:32. Thank you for coming out tonight. Yeah.

Motions and votes

2 motions on the record.

  • M1MOTION BY COUNCIL MEMBER BREYEN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE TO APPROVE AGENDA AS PRESENTED.

    Exact transcript text

    MOTION BY COUNCIL MEMBER BREYEN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE TO APPROVE AGENDA AS PRESENTED.

    moved by Breyen, seconded by Rainville

    Passed
    • YHybben
    • YBreyen
    • YGlaser
    • YSwenson
    • YRainville
    p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)MOTION BY COUNCIL MEMBER BREYEN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE TO APPROVE AGENDA AS PRESENTED. 5 AYES, MOTION CARRIED.p. 1Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)Present: Mayor Hybben, Council Member Breyen, Council Member Glaser, Council Member Swenson, and Council Member Rainville. Absent: None.

  • M2MOTION TO ADJOURN BY COUNCIL MEMBER SWENSON, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE.

    Exact transcript text

    MOTION TO ADJOURN BY COUNCIL MEMBER SWENSON, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE.

    moved by Swenson, seconded by Rainville

    Passed
    p. 2Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)MOTION TO ADJOURN BY COUNCIL MEMBER SWENSON, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RAINVILLE.p. 3Meeting City Council Special Meeting with LMC — Minutes (2025-07-09)The meeting was adjourned at 9:03 p.m.

Sources

Documents and recordings archived for this meeting, when available.

Show a sample of the transcript (561 segments, 1:21:45 total)
  • 0:01 again. I'm so sorry to keep you. Don't worry, traffic home will be much easier. I'm sure it will. We're good.
  • 0:11 All right, everybody ready? All right. Good evening everybody. Today is the 9th of July and we are in a Let's turn the mic on. All right. Good
  • 0:20 evening everybody. Today is the 9th of July. Uh and we're going to kick off our special meeting here with the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United
  • 0:33 States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
  • 0:42 justice for all. Mr. Johnson, will you lead us in roll call, please? Mayor Hib.
  • 0:54 Council member Brian here. Council member Blazer here. Council member Rainville here. Council member Swenson here.
  • 1:02 And League of Minnesota guest Amy is it Gor and uh Chief Miller here
  • 1:10 and myself Natalie Johnson. Roll call is complete. Okay. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Bryant approve the agenda as amended. Second.
  • 1:18 We have a second from Council Member Rainville. All right. We'll go ahead and uh vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion carries. We'll go right to
  • 1:28 number two, which is a discussion with the League of Minnesota Cities on team building and roles and responsibilities. So, we'll turn that email. Thank you so much.
  • 1:38 Thank you. Thanks for having me here. It's turned on. Okay. As long as it's green. It's green. Okay. It's great. And I can
  • 1:47 talk to it. Um, so, uh, my name is Amy Gore. I'm the collaboration services manager at the League of Minnesota
  • Showing first 12 segments. Open the YouTube video for the full transcript.

The summary on this page is AI-extracted and may need correction. The PDFs and the meeting recording are the official record. What do the trust labels mean?