Minutes - Council - 05/29/2012 - Special

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Motion carried. All voted in favor. The public discussion closed at 6:02 p.m. The meeting was opened back up to the public at 6:45 p.m. Ms. Soldo left the meeting. 4.2 Discussion Regarding Strategy for Responding to a Threatened Lawsuit — Closed to the Public City Attorney Goodrich identified the case and stated we have the authority to close this meeting based on State Statutes 13D.05, Subd. 3 (b). He noted Mr. Bill Everett, assigned by LMCIT is present in a matter of potential litigation and this meeting will be tape recorded. The meeting will be closed to conduct an Attorney /Client Privileged meeting. Motion by Councilmember McGlone, seconded by Councilmember Wise to close the regular portion of the Special City Council meeting to discuss potential litigation and strategy. Motion carried. All voted in favor. The public discussion closed at 6:47 p.m. The meeting was opened back up to the public at 7:19 p.m. Mayor Ramsey recessed the Special City Council meeting at 7:19 p.m. to conduct the City Council Work Session. The Special City Council meeting was reconvened at 8:10 p.m. 4.3 Future Staffing/Organizational Structure of the Public Works Department Councilmembers McGlone and Tossey were not present at this time. City Administrator Ulrich summarized that at the last City Council meeting, the City Council accepted Brian's Olson's resignation as Director of Public Works; appointed Fire Chief Kapler to an interim assignment to oversee the Public Works - Building Maintenance, Parks, Streets, and Utilities divisions, for a period of up to three months; and appointed City Engineer Himmer to an interim assignment for up to a three -month period to oversee the Engineering Division. Mr. Ulrich noted that due to the need for additional information, Councilmembers were not able to direct staff to act on some remaining items making it necessary to discuss the organizational structure of the Public Works Department. The remaining issues were: Does the Council want to fill, modify, or eliminate the recently vacated Public Works Director position. If the direction is to fill the vacant position, a restructure is not needed and staff should be directed to conduct a recruitment. If it is not the desire of the Council to fill the Public Works Director position as is, staff recommends splitting the Engineering Division from the operations side of Public Works, thereby creating two separate functional divisions: Engineering and Public Works Operations (Building Maintenance, Parks Streets and the Utilities). If the split is desired, does Council support appointing City Engineer Himmer to oversee the Engineering Division on an ongoing Special City Council/May 29, 2012 Page 2 of 8