Agenda - Council - 07/24/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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estimated that there has been a minimum of 40 hours of staff time spent thus far bringing those interns up and running. He stated that the process of using interns is not efficient because of the staff time spent bringing those interns up to speed and the short time the City has access to those interns, as they only stay for eight to ten weeks. He reviewed some of the tasks that the department has but is not able to complete in a timely manner because of a lack of staff. He stated that if the recreation specialist is not added, he would recommend scaling back dramatically on the park programming to allow him to focus on the other higher priority tasks for the parks department. Police Chief Katers stated that there has been an increase in calls for service based on the actual growth with an anticipated continued growth of the community. He stated that he is asking for two full-time patrol officers to allow the department to continue to provide a high level of service to the community. He stated that if the positions are not approved, he would need to reallocate staff that currently participate in community programming and other tasks. He stated that there has been growth in all areas of the community and all of those different areas make calls for police service. He stated that the department runs very efficiently and are good stewards of the tax payer dollars but noted that makes it difficult when an employee is on leave for military duty or illness. He stated that Ramsey has the lowest police operating cost of any community in Anoka County. Public Works Superintendent Riemer stated that 2016 was the last time a staffing request was made. He stated that in 2016 there were 510 requests for service and currently, year to date, in the past six months there have already been 523 requests. He stated that the depailinent is running behind, and the community continues to grow. He stated that his depailinent is running out of employees to respond to calls and requests and continues to fall behind. He stated that his other request would be to move a parks maintenance worker to parks lead, which would be a position reclassification. He stated that this person would handle the part-time seasonal employees and rink attendants. He noted that the reclassification would free up the parks supervisor to focus on larger tasks for the department. City Administrator Ulrich reviewed some of the options that are available to contain costs. Councilmember Riley asked if the health insurance rate has been given to the City or whether that is estimated. Human Resources Director Lasher stated that the health insurance rate has been given to the City. City Administrator Ulrich noted that the negotiable part of that element would be the amount the City contributes. Councilmember Kuzma stated that every year that he has been on the Council there has been increases to every employee for salary. He stated that while he acknowledges that the requests from the departments for staffing are needed and accurate, he would ask that the City negotiate through the contracts in 2019. He suggested that perhaps the COLA increase not be given in 2019 in return for approving the additional staff positions. He stated that the workforce has not participated in supporting the additional positions and perhaps this is the time to ask for that help. City Council Work Session / July 10, 2018 Page 3 of 8