City Council

Minutes approved on 7/10/24 by the Government Operations & Ordinances Subcommittee. CITY OF LACONIA - CITY COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING Government Operations & Ordinances City Hall- Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber 2:30 P.M. 5/22/2024 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Haynes called the meeting to order at 2:41 PM. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Councilor Felch led the salute to the flag. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Katie Gargano, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL Clerk Gargano called the roll of the following committee members: Councilor Haynes, Councilor Felch. Councilor Cheney was absent. Chairman Haynes noted that two committee members were present and a quorum was established. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Kirk Beattie, City Manager 6. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS Councilor Felch made a motion to approve the minutes from December 1, 2023; January 2, 2024 and February 29, 2024 were accepted at distributed, seconded by Haynes, Approved. 7. GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS & ORDINANCES (Haynes, Felch, Cheney) 7.A. Review of the City of Laconia Flag Policy Manager Beattie handed out a revised flag policy that he made some notes on from the previous council meeting. Sections 1 & 2 as the flag policy and section 3 will be the banner policy. Section 5- Location 1- City Hall will only be allowed to have the City, State, City and POW Flags flown. Location 2- would be other City owned property including other municipal buildings including the schools, parks, etc. the approval would be up to the building head/ department head along with consultation with the City Manager. Controversial flags will be sent to the City Manager for approval. Manager Beattie stated most of the 3 rd page of the policy will be removed, he didn’t need an application, he will keep the clauses for approval. No fee schedule needed, the flags will be flown by the city and that is it.  the schools, parks, etc. the approval would be up to the building head/ department head along with consultation with the City Manager. Controversial flags will be sent to the City Manager for approval. Manager Beattie stated most of the 3 rd page of the policy will be removed, he didn’t need an application, he will keep the clauses for approval. No fee schedule needed, the flags will be flown by the city and that is it. Section 4 most of it will be removed, they may keep the 2 nd paragraph, and add the consultation with the City Manager. An example can be a fire prevention flag being flown at the Fire Department, there isn’t a need for the Council to be alerted. Councilor Felch would like to have Manager Beattie send out the revised version to the full council, Manager Beattie will try to get it out as soon as possible. Councilor Felch said he is ok with these changes but will most likely still not vote in favor of it. Discussion on the Banner Policy: Councilor Felch thinks what is already presented for banners in the existing flag policy meets the expectations of the full Council. He knows there were some changes submitted to the legal department. Manager Beattie thinks it is going to be difficult to determine who and what types of banners can be flown. An example is LRCC is holding their graduation commencement ceremony at the Colonial Theater, they may request to hand a banner and that shouldn’t be an issue. Manager Beattie read out loud from section 5 that the banners that would be eligible to be displayed on City owned property or available city owned property are those recognizing an annual observance as defined by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts of the United States of America. Manager Beattie is going to add a stipulation that the manager has the authority to approve the requests and if needed or if the manager gets a questionable request, they could bring it to the council. The committee was in agreement with the proposed changes and Manager Beattie will be submitting it to our Legal Counsel. 8. CITIZENS REQUESTS TO COMMENT ON CURRENT AGENDA ITEMS 9. Any other business that may come before the Council Chairman Haynes asked about where the committee stood with the Historic District overlay and Demolition permits- Manager Beattie is going to check with Director Mora about where they left off. There is no update on the Historic District Overlay. 10. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Haynes adjourned the meeting at 3:05 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Katie Gargano, City Clerk