Laserfiche WebLink
City Engineer Westby replied that the design bid model is the standard model the City uses. He <br />replied that there are at least a dozen firms that specialize in this area. <br />Councilmember Riley asked for clarification, if there are a dozen firms that specialize in water <br />treatment facilities. <br />City Engineer Westby confirmed that there are at least a dozen firms that would have all the <br />specialties inhouse to design the different elements of a water treatment plant. <br />Councilmember Heineman asked if there are typically cost savings when a project is brought <br />inhouse to one firm or whether there would be cost savings to bidding different elements to <br />different firms. <br />City Engineer Westby replied that in theory it should be a more cost-effective process to use one <br />firm, as the people working on the different elements would know each other and could easily <br />communicate with each other. <br />City Administrator Ulrich stated that this will come back to the Council again to select contractors. <br />2.02: Review Past Charter Proposals Concerning City Elections <br />City Administrator Ulrich reviewed the staff report. <br />City Attorney Langel commented that the Charter Commission has been working on this for quite <br />some time. He provided additional details on the conflicts with elections within the existing <br />Charter language and State Statute and the difficulties it provided for staff. He stated that the <br />information was presented to the Charter Commission in depth in 2019, it moved forward to the <br />City Council but there was not support to adopt the changes. He stated that the first category for <br />the changes is related to primary elections and provided additional background on the elements <br />that were considered to determine how much benefit is provided in Ramsey from primaries versus <br />the cost and staff time necessary. He stated that the Charter Commission recommended to <br />eliminate the primaries. He stated that the other option out for discussion was to eliminate <br />primaries except for those occurring for general elections as those would align with State <br />primaries. He stated that a unanimous vote is required and not all members of the Council at that <br />time supported that concept, therefore the amendment process stopped. <br />Mayor Kuzma asked the process that would be followed if there were multiple people running and <br />there was not a primary. <br />City Attorney Langel replied that multiple people would then be on the ballot and the person with <br />the most votes would win. <br />Councilmember Heineman asked and received confirmation that there would not be an issue with <br />runoffs. <br />City Council Work Session / April 20, 2021 <br />Page 2 of 5 <br />