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Councilmember McGlone arrived at 8:33 p.m. <br />Councilmember Strommen talked about road reconstruction and our strategic goals and <br />expressed some concerns. She stated she has one other question under Scenario A and that is <br />how many direct reports that division head would have. <br />Mr. Ulrich stated up to five additional direct reports. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated that Mr. Ulrich's responsibility is to manage the overall budget and he is <br />looking at this as an approach to managing the budget. <br />Councilmember Strommen stated this is a major reconstruction of a major Department. <br />Councilmember Tossey arrived at 5:35 p.m. <br />Councilmember Strommen continued that this is a big issue. We need to take time on this. She <br />is just trying to understand why the restructure. She wondered if another Department Head <br />resigns, would we restructure other departments. <br />Mayor Ramsey felt it saves money. <br />City Administrator Ulrich stated that the budget savings are not as significant as you might <br />imagine because we charge back 2.5 times the Public Works Director's salary — so we had an <br />amount of revenue. The main benefits of this are to move internal staff up and we would have <br />more direct control of operations. <br />Councilmember McGlone stated that Mr. Olson left and got a better job. He went to a City <br />where the Public Works and Engineering Departments are separate. <br />Councilmember Strommen stated they are a different city — and a different size. Her question <br />relates to is this the right structure for the City of Ramsey. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated that we had a Public Works Director and we had an Engineer. We <br />had people who have been extremely busy. We are not able to keep up with the workload — so <br />what makes us think we can do it this way. He pointed out a lot of cities (Andover, Anoka, Elk <br />River, etc.) have the public works and the engineering departments as one unit. He questioned <br />how Mr. Ulrich would be able to handle this. He noted the cities he mentioned are mostly <br />growing cities and asked how we think we will take all these jobs out of here and still do the <br />work when we are struggling now. <br />Mr. Ulrich responded these department divisions have to communicate. A lot of this relies on <br />team work. He stated he is not taking over the engineering/planning - we have someone capable <br />of doing that but he has asked for more technical staff. <br />Special City Council/May 29, 2012 <br />Page 5 of 8 <br />