Agenda - Council - 04/07/1983 - Special

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'1 I I I i I I I I I I I I I I I Councilman Sorteberg stated that he will agree to 8%% so they stick together on their decision because he does feel that it is a fair figure. Case ~2: Personnel Staffing%. Councilman Reimann questioned why the Street Department additional man wasn't on the agenda for the last meeting. It seemed as though it was brought up at the meeting only because Merle happened to be present. City Administrator Schnelle stated that the Street D~partment was to be con- sidered under the case of personnel staffing. Councilman Reimann asked to see a copy of the last Personnel Committee meeting minutes. He stated that he would like to rescind his previous motion and have further discussion regarding the Accounting/Data Processing Clerk I. Motion by Councilman Reimann and seconded by Councilman Sorteberg to recommend to Council the hiring of a Light Equipment Operator. Motion carried. Councilman Reimann stated that the Street Department has budgeted the last few years for an additional person and that he and Councilman Sorteberg are in agreement that with the incoming ~i%y sewer and water, we will definitely need another person in that department. However, he questioned the workload at City Hall and whether another person was justifiable. He would like to see us hold out until at least June and wondered if the ~irls are working up to capacity. Even though we could get the money out of excess salary funds in the_ budget, he wondered why this person wasn't budgeted for this year. City Administrator Schnelle stated that he had hoped that we would be able to make it without hiring an additional person, but we have gotten ourselves involved in a lot of work. Arlene is spending the majority of her time in the Police Department. We had a computer terminal brought in to City Hall to work on our state aid legal case which saved us a considerabl~ amount of money but also took quite a bit of time away from the general office work. We turned out a landfill report that we could have had Anoka County or the Met Council do but we wouldn't have gotten Ramsey's viewpoint. There's the agenda, the budget, CIP budget, work on bond ratings, investments, street improvement projects and many more things that We spend time at. Staff is working at their'limit. What more does the Council want? Unless'you're up here you just can't know. In you~ job, you're only one person so you only take as much work as you can handle. But in this kind of work you're working for the people. Citizens are demanding more. Our work doesn't let down. Ramsey's growing and that dictates our workload. Councilman Reimann stated that he realizes that Staff is efficient but we should be able to get by until budget time. ~ou can get people to do more. The work should be getting done. Councilman Sorteberg stated that it wouldn't be good for the City Accountant to be bogged down with the type of things that an entry level person could do. Councilman Reimann stated that the' Street Department has been asking for a person for a long time and.is just now getting one. This is the first time that an accounting person has been brought up and it isn't even budgeted. Personnel Committee/March 8, 1983 Page 2 of 3