(A) The City Administrator shall establish a plan providing for the custody and disposal of property lawfully coming into possession of the city through its several departments, offices and agencies in the course of municipal operations and remaining unclaimed by the owners.
(B) The plan shall include provisions for notification to the owners or other persons lawfully entitled to possession of the property, including reasonable effort to ascertain the identity and address of any unknown owners of property estimated to be of more than $50 in value.
(C) Any unclaimed property, after it has been in the possession of the city for a period of at least three months may be sold to the highest bidder at public auction or sale following reasonable published notice in the official newspaper; provided, that the plan established by the City Administrator may include provisions for the sale or other disposition of property estimated to be of less value than the expense of public auction or sale, but notice of the disposition shall be published in the official newspaper.
(D) There is hereby established within the city treasury a fund to be known as the Unclaimed Property Escrow Fund and the proceeds of all sales held pursuant to the plan of the City Administrator shall be paid over to the Treasurer to be credited to that fund and shall be itemized so as to show each item sold, the sale price and the date of sale thereof.
(E) If, within six months of the date of sale of any item, the former owner or other person previously having a lawful right to possession thereof, proves the prior ownership or right to possession to the satisfaction of the City Administrator, the City Administrator shall pay the sale price to him or her out of the Unclaimed Property Escrow Fund.
(F) During the first week of each month, the City Clerk shall review the record of the Unclaimed Property Escrow Fund and shall transfer therefrom and place to the credit of the general fund all amounts representing the proceeds of sales made more than six months before the date of review and which were not paid out to prior owners or persons previously entitled to possession of property sold by the city.
(1973 Code, § 2-10)
Statutory reference:
For state law basis of this section, see M.S. § 471.195