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RELEVANT LINKS: <br />League of Minnesota Cities Handbook for Minnesota Cities 6/8/2022 <br />Elected Officials and Council Structure and Role Chapter 6 | Page 11 <br /> • Political contributions. <br />• Services to assist an official in the performance of official duties. <br />• Services of insignificant monetary value. <br />• A plaque or similar memento recognizing individual services in a field <br />of specialty or to a charitable cause. <br />• A trinket or memento costing $5 or less. <br />• Informational material of unexceptional value. <br />• Food or a beverage given at a reception, meal or meeting away from <br />the recipient’s place of work by an organization before whom the <br />recipient makes a speech or answers questions as part of a program. <br />(This exception probably permits only the principal speakers at <br />meetings to receive gifts of food or beverage). <br />• Gifts given because of the recipient’s membership in a group, a <br />majority of whose members are not local officials, if an equivalent gift <br />is offered to or given to the other members of the group. <br />• Gifts between family members, unless the gift is given on behalf of <br />someone who is not a member of that family. <br />• Food or beverages given by a national or multi-state organization of <br />governmental organizations or officials at a reception or meal to <br />attendees at a conference sponsored by that organization if a majority <br />of the dues to the organization are paid from public funds and an <br />equivalent gift is given or offered to all other attendees. <br />Minn. Stat. § 465.03. Kelly v. <br />Campaign Finance and <br />Public Disclosure Bd, 679 <br />N.W.2d 178 (Minn. Ct. App. <br />2004). <br />The law prohibits gifts to city officials, not to cities. Thus, an interested <br />person can give a gift to a city. If the giver has no control over who will <br />receive the gift and the gift was not targeted to a specific person, perhaps a <br />city official could benefit from that gift. If the person who benefits from <br />the gift has any control over its use, the gift would likely be prohibited. <br />For example, if an interested person gave a city five tickets to a football <br />game, the council members probably could not decide to use the tickets for <br />themselves. <br />Minn. Stat. ch. 10A. <br />See LMC information memo, <br />Official Conflict of Interest <br />for more information. <br />Metropolitan cities with a population over 50,000 are subject to additional <br />regulations. Under the Ethics in Government Act, local officials in these <br />cities are also prohibited from receiving gifts from “lobbyists” and <br />“principals” although there are exceptions similar to those for the gift law. <br />Minnesota Campaign <br />Finance and Public <br />Disclosure Board. <br />The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board issues <br />advisory opinions regarding the lobbyist gift ban. These opinions may be <br />relevant to any Minnesota city struggling with the application of a gift ban <br />to a particular situation. <br />14