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Councilmember Kurak stated that it was her understanding that each separate development <br />within the Town Center will still have to go through the development approval processes. <br />Community Development Director Frolik replied that was correct. <br />City Administrator Norman explained that during the peak period of developing the Town Center <br />the City will need a full-time building inspector and an engineering tech to handle Town Center <br />projects alone. <br />Councilmember Pearson stated that there is other development occurring in the City beyond the <br />Town Center and inquired as to how much revenue those developments will bring into the City. <br />Councilmember Zimmerman explained that the City will not collect taxes until 2004 on any of <br />the buildings constructed this year. He stated that it would be beneficial to make sure that staff is <br />billing out as much time as they can and make sure they keep a detailed record of where they <br />spend their time. <br />City Administrator Norman noted that staff currently does keep track of their billable time for <br />each project. <br />Councilmember Pearson inquired as to how the City determines the amount to bill a developer <br />for staff time. <br />Finance Officer Lund explained that the City bills 2.75 times the hourly rate of the employee, <br />except in the Community Development Department where they charge $74.00 per hour. <br />Councilmember Pearson inquired if it was possible for the City to increase those fees. <br />Finance Officer Lund replied that the fee has to be fair and reasonable. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated that the City has two ways of raising money, which are services and <br />taxes. Staff is going to have to have a strong accounting system to determine what is billable and <br />can they sustain themselves. He suggested putting together a formula on how many employees <br />will be needed to support the workload in comparison to the amount of time that would be <br />billable. <br />Councilmember Zimmerman suggested that the City approach anything they do with caution and <br />not rely on how they have collected money in the past for the future because of all the changes <br />the legislature has made. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated that he would like to see the average billable rate of each billable <br />employee and an average of future billable time. <br />City Council Work Session/August 5, 2003 <br />Page 3 of 11 <br />