Minutes - Council Work Session - 07/10/2018

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growth of the community. He stated that not all of the items need to appear in the budget but would be on the table for discussion. City Administrator Ulrich noted that the Council will now receive short, high level presentations from each of the departments regarding staffing. City Engineer Westby thanked the Council for approving the part-time administrative assistant position for his department last year, noting that the additional help has contributed significantly to his department. He noted that the position was approved for part-time and has functioned in that capacity for six months. He stated that based on the performance, skills and abilities of the employee, he can see a lot of other duties that could be delegated to the employee and therefore is asking that the position be increased from part-time to full-time. He noted that there has been a phased retirement of another employee in his department, with that employee reducing to part- time and therefore this additional time for the administrative assistant would continue to allow delegation to her with the other engineering employees then able to focus on larger tasks. He reviewed some of the tasks that the administrative assistant currently handles as well as tasks that she could assist with in the future should the increase to full-time be approved. He stated that the additional hours would allow engineering to work more efficiently and respond to tasks and customer service requests in a more timely manner. Councilmember Kuzma asked for details on the phased retirement position and its impact on the budget. City Engineer Westby stated that the employee began phased retirement in July 2017 and therefore has already been accounted for in the budget process. Acting Mayor LeTourneau noted that it appears that there has been a lot more value added to the organization because of the skill set of the engineering administrative assistant than originally anticipated. Fire Chief Kohner stated that firefighter staffing levels has not increased since 2004 and there has been a steady increase for calls for service and therefore he is asking for one additional firefighter. He noted that about 50 percent of the calls are daytime calls and it is becoming harder to find paid on-call firefighters that can respond during the day. He stated that because he is responding to daytime calls, he is not able to fully focus on his operational duties. He stated that when not responding to daytime calls, the firefighter would complete code compliance inspections. He stated that the neighboring communities have a lower number of calls, lower growth rate and yet have a higher number of employees. He stated that the position will align with three of the City's strategic initiatives. Parks and Assistant Public Works Superintendent Riverblood stated that he is requesting a full- time recreation specialist. He provided background information on the strategic goal of creating a robust opportunity for recreational programing and the City's progress since that time. He stated that in 2017 the City had an intern that was focused on recreational programming, which was a great assistance. He stated that the department made a request for the position the previous year that was not approved. He noted that the department has two recreational interns this year and City Council Work Session/July 10,2018 Page 2 of 8