Agenda - Council - 08/28/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Police Chief Katers stated that the cost for equipment would be approximately $9,000 per officer. He stated that initially there was a vehicle request for the two officers but there has since been a forfeiture that will offset that cost. Councilmember Riley stated that two officers are requested this year and asked if zero officers would be requested next year. Police Chief Katers stated that he would need to review the community information before making that decision. He stated that the community is continuing to grow, and the additional elementary school will most likely bring additional residents as well. He explained that he will receive calls for service on day one and does not like to be behind, noting that the department has already received calls since construction began. Public Works Superintendent Reimer stated that calls for service continue to increase in all departments as the population continues to grow. He stated that in example the calls for pothole repair in 2016 were 19 and then in 2018 that increased to 29, and so far, this year there have been 57 calls for pothole repair. He reviewed some of the public works duties that the department provides during the different seasons and stated that all of those duties take time and people to complete. He stated that the department is falling behind on the duties to the community and one additional employee would help the department to respond to the department needs. He stated that street sweeping takes three of the four employees to complete and therefore he does not have additional employees to respond to calls for service. He stated that there was only one employee added to the department in the past ten years. Parks and Assistant Public Works Superintendent Riverblood stated that any public works employee is added to the on -call responders. He stated that someone is available 24/7 to respond to public works needs. City Administrator Ulrich noted that the start date for this position would be March 1' and therefore the impact to the future budgets would be higher. City Engineer Westby stated that his request falls in the same category as the other departments, noting that the additional employee would help the department meet the needs of the community. He reviewed some of the department duties and responsibilities and stated that there is a lot of demand for staff. He stated that he has been acting as the project manager for the City improvement projects, working to develop the projects and move them through the City Council and then administer and supervise as the projects are in the field. He stated that the department is struggling to keep up with the requests and needs of the residents and to meet deadlines. He reviewed upcoming projects that the department is involved in and stated that he is concerned with the Ramsey Highway 10 plan that the Bolton & Menk consultants are involved with. He stated that he has concerns with his ability to assist with phase one and to be involved with phase two. He stated that his goal would be to transition his project manager duties to the engineer technician but in order to do that, they would need to push some of the technician's duties to the administrative assistant. He stated that increasing the hours of the administrative assistant from 20 to 40 hours per week would allow for the transference of duties. City Council Work Session / August 6, 2018 Page 5 of 9