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Councilmember Heinrich asked if staff is willing to present ideas for further offsetting the <br />Planning Technician position prior to budget adoption. <br />Community Development Director Gladhill confirmed that could be done. <br />Councilmember Menth asked if the main responsibility of the Planning Technician would be <br />code enforcement. <br />Community Development Director Gladhill confirmed that would be one element of the position <br />but noted that the employee would also be responsible for managing the intake of land use <br />applications. <br />Councilmember Menth stated as he understands it currently, rental properties do not have an <br />annual or semi-annual inspection. He stated that he inspects rental properties in Coon Rapids, <br />where an inspection is completed every three years. He noted that those inspections catch a lot <br />of violations and forces code compliance without requiring neighbor complaints. He suggested <br />that perhaps Ramsey also implement a similar process. <br />Community Development Director Gladhill noted that discussion could occur at a future <br />worksession. He noted that Ramsey currently does not have sufficient staff to handle those types <br />of inspections. <br />Councilmember Menth echoed the comments that code enforcement and inspections have a high <br />turnover rate for employees. <br />Councilmember Kuzma referenced the comment from Councilmember Heinrich asking for <br />additional budget cuts to offset the Planning Technician position. He stated that it would be <br />difficult to predict the permit revenue and he would hate to see the budget made too tight and <br />believed that would tie the hands of the Community Development department to some extent. <br />Councilmember Heinrich stated that she would like the departments to take some time to review <br />the budgets again to determine if there are some items that fall into the "want" category and <br />could be postponed. <br />Mayor LeTourneau stated that in an ongoing operational scenario the staff should always be <br />sensitive to efficiencies that could be gained. He explained that the Planning Technician request <br />is simply to create a more even playing field. He stated that he would not want to force staff to <br />pinpoint the need for contract services for 2020, as it would be difficult to predict what those <br />needs would be without seeing the applications and workload that comes forward. <br />Councilmember Heinrich stated that she would like to be presented with other possible <br />budgetary cuts within each depaitinent and review that information in a worksession prior to <br />budget adoption. <br />City Council Work Session / November 18, 2019 <br />Page 9 of 14 <br />