Minutes - Council Work Session - 02/15/2022 - Special

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Councilmember Riley continued, that may be how you get to that new streamlining, that may be talked about coming up. Councilmember Woestehoff referenced the last one which reads “improve and sustain high organizational morale” and asked if “and retention of employees” could be added. City Administrator Ulrich asked for comments on that. Councilmember Woestehoff continued that he thought it is important as a Council to state to the Staff that they want them to stay here if it is a good fit for them, that would be the point in adding it. Councilmember Musgrove replied she thought that improving and sustaining the morale is what keeps the retention so it is somewhat redundant. She thought it could be worked toward as a goal but questioned it as a strategy because people retire or make decisions to go to different jobs which would count against them. Councilmember Riley commented that he liked the sentiment but questioned “sustain high organizational morale” because he wasn’t sure they have high morale now as there is a lot of turn- over. He stated he would like to strive for high organizational morale and retention. Councilmember Musgrove responded to Councilmember Riley’s point, that the “high” is determined by, as Administrative Services Director Lasher had stated it, a category of choice in internal feedback. Administrative Services Director Lasher elaborated that when they conduct employee surveys, which are over due to a lack of resources right now to do it, it would be to maintain or exceed 70% level of satisfaction with leadership. That was one component of that. Councilmember Musgrove asked if that helped in clarifying that. City Administrator Ulrich agreed that was one of the outcomes. He stated now it reads “strive for high organizational morale and retention.” He asked how that sounded. Councilmember Heineman commented that it sounded good but reiterated that he tends to think of himself as more fiscally conservative but he voted for cost of living increases and supporting Jason with the new hire because he wants high morale. He stated that he would rather ask a City Staff that feels like they are compensated well and are trusted to look into the budget and find things to cut, than to cut their budget and try to do it himself. His goal is to have high morale and if there are other ways to reach it, he suggested they be honest with each other and if it is partially because of retirement or other things, that are possible, he would like to have an open conversation to see what that looks like. He stated he supported that goal. He didn’t know if “high” as a measurement or “higher” which is not so tangible. Regardless he would like to find out how the Staff can be supported in order to push things through that they want to push through. Mayor Kuzma asked City Administrator Ulrich to repeat that. City Council Special Work Session / February 15, 2022 Page 15 of 31