10.04 Friends of the Pequot Lakes Library Request

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Page 2 of 3 community as a body;2) The activity is directly related to functions of government;and 3) The activity does not have as its primary objective the benefit of a private interest." Visina v. Freeman,252 Minn. 177,89 N.W.2d 635(1958). So, applying this standard to the facts presented, we can presumably conclude that the expenditure proposed would appear to be for a public purpose. Thus, one aspect of the required public purpose expenditure analysis appears to be met. This then leads to the second prong of the analysis, which requires the City to find legal authority to make the expenditure of public funds. In short, once dollars are provided to a city in whatever form they are received, they become public dollars and are subject to a body of public laws limiting how they can be used and expended. Thus, once FOL provided dollars to the City, they became government,public dollars to be used for the purpose for which they were provided to the City. I have been provided no evidence at this point that would support a conclusion that the dollars provided to the City would be anything other than public as I assume the money received by the City was invested in the City's name and the money budgeted by the city council to support library operating expenses as the city would for any other City department. To expend such dollars going forward from the point they were received by the City, the City must meet both prongs of the public purpose expenditure analysis. We have arguably met the first prong as discussed briefly above, but now must find statutory authority to make this expenditure to a nonprofit corporation. One possible legal basis to make the proposed expenditure is based on the state donations to municipalities law. Under that law, the expenditure of donated dollars must be used for the purposes for which they were provided where the resolution accepting such dollars specifies such terms of use. See Minn.Stat.Sec.465.03("Any city... may accept a grant or devise of real or personal property and maintain such property for the benefit of its citizens in accordance with the terms prescribed by the donor. ... Every such acceptance shall be by resolution of the governing body adopted by a two-thirds majority of its members, expressing such terms in full."). The City should check the record resolution accepting the funds from FOL and review what terms or conditions were placed upon such funds in that resolution. This is the first step in the review and may influence how the dollars are treated by the City since to return the dollars to FOL, the resolution accepting the funds would have to provide a term for return of the funds based on a finding that the City is not or will not be using the donated funds in accordance with the terms stated in the resolution prescribed by the donor. This would only apply to the amount of dollars actually donated by FOL and not otherwise used to date by the City. It seems unlikely that the City will be able to rely on this statute for this expenditure, but the City should nonetheless review the resolution or resolutions pertaining to the donations since we cannot make this determination until this review has been completed. It should be noted that there are numerous other state statutes that specifically authorize certain expenditures of public dollars and that each request for public funds must be evaluated accordingly. Some examples of statutorily authorized public expenditures include;for senior citizen or youth centers (Minn.Stat. §471.935),for city recreation programs(Minn. Stat.§§471.15-.191),for artistic organizations(Minn.Stat. §471.941), to food shelves(Minn.Stat. §465.039),for community centers used for recreation programs(471.935),for commemorating historical events(Minn.Stat. §471.93), and to encourage and promote industry and to provide employment opportunities for citizens(469.185), among others. I have not been able to find a statute that would authorize the expenditure contemplated here, and barring finding such statutory authority or being able to find a resolution meeting the above donations statute, the expenditure to FOL as contemplated here would not be allowed. There can be no question that cities often get asked to make expenditures to support nonprofit organizations operating for very good causes in the city. The good that FOL has done and will do in the