Agenda - Council Work Session - 08/24/2021

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Questions and Response: Question: Which fund do the monies come from to pay for the City's Contracted secretarial service (TOSS) and what is the current balance as it relates to funds available for additional costs for potential change in minute type requested? Response: The funds come out of Professional Services (130-6315). This fund is used for many vendors, such as TimeSavers, The League of MN Cities Insurance Trust, COBRA Administration etc.. The 2021 budget for Professional Services was set at $50,000. For minutes so far this year (January, February, March, April, and May) we have a remaining balance of $21,958.83. The total spent for all minutes, including board and commission meetings, for January — May 31, 2021 is $10,505.27. That is an average of $2101.05 per month. So for 12 months, I estimate the cost will be $25,212.65. A summary: Account 0130.6315 "Professional Services" $50,000.00 = budget for Professional Services in 2021 $28,041.17 = combined total of all professional services spent (paid) so far this year (this is payment for all professional services so far, not just TOSS services) $21,958.83 = balance of professional services remaining (for all professional services, not just TOSS services) Question: How much time and how many staff members are reviewing the minutes weekly compared to clean verbatim minutes with TOSS distribution? Response: The minutes are proofed by either the Deputy City Clerk or the City Clerk. If there are questions, the applicable staff member (the one that attended the meeting) is consulted. Almost all of the proofing is done by the Deputy City Clerk, Katie Schmidt. My time is mostly spent on many other task. Katie estimates that she spends 2-3 hours per set of minutes (total for both WS and CC). Other staff proof read their respective minutes in their departments. I really do not know how much time would be added to Clean Verbatim, naturally, there will be more to read, more copying, etc. But, aside from TimeSavers costs and staff proof reading costs, I would imagine the other added costs would not add up to very much. Question: What is the current staff process to review minutes? Response: When we receive the minutes, if we can't tell who was present, we find out who was there, we proof read the minutes for typos, save them, create a case for Council approval and scan them into our permanent records system. We have started a "Cheat Sheet" for work sessions to determine who was in attendance since that is not on camera.