Roseville stands on land that was once home to the Dakota and Ojibwa Indians. The Dakota believed their land superior because it was located at the juncture of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, which they poetically claimed, was immediately over the center of the earth and beneath the center of heaven. Many years later in 1940, Ramsey county Surveyors bolstered this claim when they placed a boulder on the spot they determined was exactly 1/2 the distance between the equator and the North Pole. That spot is on the east side of Cleveland Avenue, just north of Roselawn Avenue in Roseville.
The City of Roseville operates under the council-manager plan. Under this form of government, all legislative power is vested in the elected, part-time city council.
This council consists of a mayor (the ceremonial head of the city who presides over council meetings) and four council members who are elected at large for four-year overlapping terms. Each member has a single, equal vote.