Tag: planning commission openings

Planning & Parks Commissioners sought – Minnetrista

If you are a Minnetrista resident and want to get involved in your community consider filling out Minnetrista’s Application for Commissions and Committees and volunteer to be on the city’s Planning Commission or Parks Commission. Each commission has two seats to be appointed with terms beginning January 2022. There is one incumbent on each commission requesting to continue and one open seat on each commission as well. Applicants interview with the city council and are appointed by the council.

Planning Commission
The Minnetrista Planning Commission consists of seven (7) members and two (2) alternate members who serve as a volunteer advisory commission appointed by the City Council. The Planning Commission is a recommending body to the City Council which reviews public and private development proposals for consistency with the Comprehensive Plan and the City Code. The commission meets the fourth Monday of each month. Each commissioner serves a four (4) year term.


Parks and Recreation Commission
The Minnetrista Park and Recreation Commission consists of five (5) members and two (2) alternate members who serve as a volunteer advisory commission appointed by the City Council. The purpose of the commission is to advise the City Council in the providing of recreational areas and facilities in relation to land use and citizen requests within the community. In addition to the five (5) members, a council member designated by the council is an ex-officio nonvoting member of the commission. The commission meets the second Tuesday of each month. Each commissioner serves a three (3) year term.

Minnetrista’s Parks and Planning Commissioners appointed

Last night, after interviewing candidates for openings on Minnetrista’s Parks Commission and Planning Commission, the city council made the following appointments:

Parks Commission (three year terms):
Sarah Hussain, Parks Commission (incumbent)
Hal Goldstein, Alternate #1 Parks Commission
Nancy Richeson, Alternate #2 Parks Commission

Planning Commission (four year terms):
Damian Young, Planning Commission (incumbent)
John Sturgess, Planning Commission

Candidate applications were provided in the council’s work session packet starting on page 2. The Parks Commission appointments vote was unanimous (5-0) but the Planning Commission vote on Mr. Young’s appointment was not with one dissenting vote (4-1), but a unanimous (5-0) vote on Mr. Sturgess.

Sarah Hussain, incumbent candidate for the Parks Commission, and Andrew Beitler, candidate for the Parks Commission were not present for the interviews.

Newly elected Council Member Cathleen Reffkin expressed concern over the fact that both incumbent Planning Commission members, Damian Young and Robert Rabin, recently voted to recommend approval of the ground mounted solar farm application on CR92 which residents widely opposed. That, she suggested, indicated the Planning Commission needs new commissioners more aligned with residents.

Who are the candidates for Minnetrista Parks and Planning Commissions?

Monday night will be a first for Minnetrista. For the first time city residents interested in serving on one of the city’s commissions will actually have an opportunity to compete for those seats against incumbents that have already served.

In the past the city council automatically reappointed any commission member that wished to serve another term after their term had expired, without notifying residents of the opportunity to apply for the expiring seat. That all changed during a heated council meeting on December 7 where the practice was exposed and criticized for shutting out resident involvement on the city’s Parks and Planning Commissions.

The reason given for not advertising the openings in the past had been these volunteer positions had been difficult to fill and when someone had served and was willing to continue it was best to hang onto them. Somehow, however, the commission seats were almost always full and when a vacancy occurred it was quickly filled.

The city received 8 applications for the 5 commission assignments: 1 vacant seat and 2 alternate seats for the Parks Commission; and 2 vacant seats for the Planning Commission. Candidates and their applications are listed (starting on page 2) in the council’s work session agenda for Monday night. Applicant names are below (*incumbent):

Andrew Beitler (Parks Commission)
Hal Goldstein (Parks or Planning Commission)
*Sarah Hussain (Parks Commission)
*Robert Rabin (Planning Commission)
Nancy Richeson (Parks Commission)
Paul Stone (Planning Commission)
John Sturgess (Planning Commission)
*Damian Young (Planning Commission)

It will be interesting to see if Monday’s interviews are just a pretense of fairness or if these new applicants actually have a chance at taking an incumbent’s commission seat. There are only 3 incumbents and 5 seats to fill so by default there will be at least two new appointees. I have a feeling at least one of them, Hal Goldstein, will be appointed because he was apparently recruited and applied back in October before there were even any openings. You can read about that here.

There are some impressive resumes from some of these applicants and I hope they are legitimately evaluated for what they have to offer the city. Minnetrista needs commissioners that think for themselves, have a genuine interest in city planning and will do the research and work to make good, reliable recommendations to the council.

Minnetrista opens applications for Planning and Parks Commissions

After a Monday night council meeting, where an issue was made of the fact that Minnetrista has historically reappointed commissioners when their terms expire without notifying the public and giving others the opportunity to serve, the city has posted a notice on their website announcing all open commission seats, expiring as well as vacated. The deadline to apply is December 21.

Below is the notice where an application appears at the bottom of their page:

Job Title: Parks Commission & Planning Commission
Department: Community Development
Hours: Volunteer
Start date: January 2021
Job Description:

Are you interested in getting more involved in your community?  If so, the City of Minnetrista is accepting applications for the volunteer positions of Parks Commissioner & Planning Commissioner.  There is currently one open seat and two open alternate seats on the Parks Commission and two open seats on the Planning Commission all for terms beginning in January of 2021.  Parks Commissioners serve a three (3) year term and meet on the second (2nd) Tuesday of each month, while Planning Commissioners serve a four (4) year term and meet on the fourth (4th) Monday of each month.

A Parks Commissioner works to ensure that the Parks, Trails and Open Space Plan is implemented by reviewing development applications on a case-by-case basis and the annual Parks Capital Improvement Plan.

A Planning Commissioner reviews all applications for development, variances, and other land use applications, while also reviewing proposed policy changes by making recommendations to the City Council for new or updated ordinances.

Alternate members for both the Parks Commission and the Planning Commission are treated the same as full time members in that they are sent the packet in advance of each scheduled meeting.  In the event a full time member cannot attend a meeting, an alternate member is selected to fill in for the absent full time member.

If you or someone you know are interested, please contact City Hall at 952-446-1660 or fill out the application below and send to Minnetrista@ci.minnetrista.mn.us. 

Applications are due by Monday December 21, 2020 at 4:00 P.M.