Agenda - Council - 08/27/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

CC Regular Session Meeting Date: 08/27/2013 By: Colleen Lasher, Administrative Services 7. 4. Information Title: Report from the Personnel Committee — August 27, 2013 Case 2 of 4: Resolution to End a Part-time Building Maintenance Worker's Probation Case 3 of 4: Resolution to Hire a Building Official and Continue Relationship with St. Francis Case 4 of 4: Resolution to Recruit for an Engineering Technician III Note: Case 1 of 4 was for discussion only. Background: The following cases were presented at this evening's Personnel Committee meeting. Case 2 of 4: Mr. Jeff Strelow was hired for the position of part-time Building Maintenance Worker on February 26, 2013 and was subject to a six-month probationary period. Mr. Strelow has successfully completed the required six-month probationary period. Staff recommends retaining Mr. Strelow as a regular part-time employee. Case 3 of 4: On May 28, 2013, the City Council directed staff to end contracted Building Official services and to recruit for a City Building Official. Staff conducted this recruitment and received twenty-seven applications, sixteen of which met the minimum position requirements and eight candidates were interviewed. At this time, staff recommends hiring Mr. Rick Jarson, effective on or near September 16, 2013, at $31.23 per hour (step 1 of the 2013 wage scale) with a credit of 10 vacation days. Mr. Jarson has successfully passed the City's background check, reference checks, physical and drug screen, as well as the work -style assessment. Due to a spike in Building Division activity, staff found it necessary to utilize the services of neighboring cities and found the Saint Francis Chief Building Official to be particularly beneficial with a high level of expertise. Staff proposes continuing this relationship with Saint Francis by utilizing Mr. Andy Schreder for Chief Building Official services --limited to ten to twelve hours per week to provide additional expertise and to serve as a back-up Building Official during times of leave, etc. Staff anticipates the hours necessary to contract with Saint Francis (St. Francis would invoice the City of Ramsey) would be offset by a reduction in hours provided by Inspectron, Inc. The City would likely experience a cost savings under this scenario due to a lower hourly rate contracting with Saint Francis. Inspectron Inc. would continue to be available in order to meet customer needs during times of spikes in activity levels. Staff feels that this proposal provides the City with a great degree of flexibility in moving forward. As a side note, in the future, there may be an opportunity to develop a mutually beneficial shared services agreement for specialty inspection services such as mechanical inspections or plumbing inspections; this will be brought forward for City Council consideration at a later date. Case 4 of 4: The City has had the Engineering Technician III position slated for recruitment and in the budget since January 1, 2013. The request to recruit has been put off due to the many changes in the Engineering Division and the desire to get Bruce Westby, our new City Engineer, acclimated and in -tune the the business needs of the division. Mr. Westby, in cooperation with City Administrator Ulrich, have determined that hiring an Engineering Technician III will allow the City to better meet its engineering needs and will better utilize current staffing time and talents.