Minutes - Council Work Session - 07/25/2017

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Councilmember LeTourneau stated that perhaps staff should do the interviewing and make the recommendation as they have more interaction with the legal services than the Councilmembers. Councilmember Kuzma stated that the City should be very smart in who they hire because of the possibility that body cameras will come into play in the future and therefore this should be a specialized RFP for solely prosecution services. Councilmember Shryock noted that the civil services expire in December and asked how the timelines would work to keep those RFP processes separate. Police Chief Katers stated that it would be the discretion of the Council to stagger the RFP processes, as the current firm is flexible and would continue to provide services. He stated that it is labor intensive for staff to go through two RFP processes at the same time and therefore he would prefer staggering. It was the consensus to begin the RFP process for prosecution services and stagger the timeline between the RFP processes for prosecution and civil services. Councilmember LeTourneau asked for additional details on why this did not occur in 2016 if the contract expired in 2016. Police Chief Katers stated that it is a time-consuming process to go through the RFP process. He noted that the City Code is inconsistent on whether the RFP process needs to occur every three years or every three to five years. He stated that the police department is very happy with the services from the current firm and therefore in 2016 brought that forward to the Council to request an extension on the contract for another one-year period. Mayor Strommen stated that perhaps staff can provide an update in the future on the timeline for the RFP processes for prosecution and civil services and further define the role of the Council in the interview process. She stated that while she agrees that the Council does not need to be involved in every step of the process for civil services, she did believe that the Council should be involved at some level to ensure that the Council feels comfortable with the recommendations that are being provided from the legal counsel. 2.03: Continued Discussion of the 2017 General Fund Budget City Administrator Ulrich provided an introduction to the continued budget discussion. Finance Director Lund reviewed the staff report. City Administrator Ulrich provided additional details specific to the road improvement project costs and the accumulated debt as well as the long-term relation to the levy. He noted that a separate meeting would be scheduled during this process to discuss debt specifically. He moved on to the personnel requests that were introduced at the last meeting and provided additional City Council Work Session/July 25,2017 Page 4 of 7