to order the february th meeting of the lakewood reinvestment authority will the clerk secretary please call the roll please oh they're able will turn it over to mister smith again i just want to echo the last couple meetings you've been here until the very very end so it's my pleasure  sir we've an item to be read into the end of the record here consent agenda item happy to answer questions about that if anybody would like to to do that but we did not have a formal presentation we thought the memo was fairly sufficient in terms of describing it essentially it's amendment to the bylaws in order to make the executive director of the economic development authority the secretary executive director for the lra and i appreciate that process clarity so i'll ask the secretary to please read in the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of item four only item for resolution lra two thousand and twenty one a resolution amending the liquid reinvestment authority bylaws to designate the economic development director as a secretary executive director of the lakewood reinvest the consent agenda items introduced into the record by the secretary it's our second second okay second any discussions or questions please cast your vote then that passes ten eyes zero nays well the clerk please read item five item five general business discussion advisement request for proposal qualifications for lakewood reinvestment authority special counsel well now open public comment on item five nobody has indicated i wish to speak i'll close that and ask for a motion so i'm kind of at a loss qualifications our last attorney was marie dahle the firm of murray doll is that correct correct and they're no longer going to function in that capacity well there are really two attorneys who had done work for us on urban renewal matters one has moved on to another firm mister wilson he works with us on other matters and the other was mister mari who has been mckee his way into retirement in recent years oh really it's the eminent domain expertise not something that's to get exercised very often fortunately but that's the big part of urban renewal law and then that's where we're at something of a loss these days he was just a handful of specialists out there really know that business inside and out so what you're telling us is that the qualifications or that they be an expert in eminent domain i would i would emphasize it more as an expert in urban renewal or experience in urban renewal and including the use of eminent domain in that context so there are three four lawyers that fit that qualification in the metro area i i'd say more more like a dozen or so lawyers maybe three or four firms that really specialize that i should have said farms i'm sorry but there there could be other solo practitioners who have been doing that kind of work that we're not familiar with and would want to hear from so what would you suggest we discuss i think it was intended to be an information item and an opportunity for direction if you agreed with the with the  items proposed in that in that memo that you're seeing what would knowledge of the process that we're going to follow be helpful in this discussion the process that we're going to follow for and hiring an attorney oh he's going to come up with the names that sort of thing but my concern is i don't know anything about the qualifications these folks have i know some of them yeah and of course i think you all understand this is even in an area where professional services of this type a bid process really isn't required it can be done through direct contact with people we know to be in that business but to be a little bit more transparent about it i think we're proposing to go through the rfp process and and whether that you know usually in that context purchase the purchasing folks in the finance department are heavily involved in putting together the rfp documents including compiling a list of potential recipients but then it can go to cml also through the  city attorney's listserv so that people can hear about it through that channel you and if we don't have their name at the first opportunity so i guess the basic question is what do you think we need to be talking about here does this proposal work for all of you and can we go forward with it i guess that works for me so i guess the question i would have is since i don't believe in it and correct me if i'm wrong is obviously this body hasn't decided whether we're going to expand the board and so with something like this my question would be can it simply be consultative services without an actual general counsel that way it's something that's less onerous and council can get that advisement of the pros and cons because it seems like that you would want to do that and if it turns out that maybe council says no not this time there's no areas or there are then you would go down that path it seems almost like a consultative arrangement would precede this in order to not go through that heavy lift now and really get the information so we knew whether we were going forward or not with that expansion which then becomes the more owner as part of this would that be a fair take or consultati services in this area are not generally how it's done i want to make sure i understand you're saying really bringing somebody on as a as a consultant and as needed role to assist with the the changes to the board if  that direction is that well yeah i don't think the body has decided whether there's an area there's anything to be done and so it seems like if you're going to go down the path of this whole general council that you would really be needing that if that board were to get expanded and constituted and then there were to be that discussion of the areas so i didn't know whether there was folks for whom we can just simply get that consultation to this body and they we make that decision which seems much less time intensive than actually going down the path of getting a general counsel certainly that's a topic on which the candidate could advise  the council as to what the pros and cons are of going through that process and i think this is seen as a and as needed role anyway whether or not to proceed with that process now and expand the board it's always been one that's sort of do we need anything from the from the special urban renewal council or not and that would be continue to be the case so and i would recommend that we however that is be brought into discussion that if there's to be any discussion about the expansion of the board and what's required to comply with state law would that be part of that person's responsibility harrison quick question is there any reason we wouldn't go forward with your what's being discussed here which is an rfp for you know general counsel we're in a position where we're going to need general counsel in some fashion sooner or later right it's just something we want to make sure you were aware of and had a little bit of the history that you may not have been familiar with but yeah i'd agree with it and then number two you feel that you have the expertise in house to choose between these different proposals to pick out yeah we can we can confer with cml and perhaps other organizations for if they have job descriptions but the scope of services for this type of rfp so we can make sure we ditto on most of mister peters questions i think that we've got to have somebody on board all the time even if they're not as needed because of the fact that we'll have questions that will have to be answered and we need to have somebody that we can pick up the phone call phone to the next morning after something comes up so i think to delay and not have this i support the proposal so thank you yeah there even after mister murray was not sort of coming around on a regular basis we were calling him up with questions as they arose and there reached a point in time where there was just enough separation that didn't make sense to do that anymore but that's what we'd want to have the ability to do when we needed him okay all right anything else you need from us go forth do great things anything else from the body here okay well we're gonna adjourn at appreciate that thank you everyone thank you  police agent appreciate you hanging out with us i think you've drawn to late nights yes