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<br />Mayor Kuzma stated that he could not agree more with Councilmember Heineman. He added that <br />he has seen good people leave due to the hours and when someone special is in the position, like <br />the current individual, it is important to keep her and the extra 10 hours is a great investment for <br />the City. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht mentioned that this case was the only one in the last meeting that the <br />Council wanted more information on; however, he believes that a lot of people move to Ramsey <br />for the parks and the City should keep it up and he supports moving to a 40 hour work week for <br />the Recreation Specialist. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove wanted to follow up on a question with Interim Parks and Assistant <br />Public Works Director Riverblood, asking him if there was any way with nominal fees that the <br />Council could help with the salary for this position. <br /> <br />Interim Parks and Assistant Public Works Director Riverblood stated that with the exception of <br />some of the physical activity for older adults, most of the courses have fees or do not come with a <br />cost as the instructors are volunteers, so there are not many fees to be collected with the exception <br />of youth activities. He noted that he can get Council’s recommendation on what activities could <br />be charged more for. He added that sometimes participation goes down when programs have fees; <br />however, sometimes there is more buy in and participants are more likely to show up. He <br />mentioned there are also costs associated with processing; however, it has gotten easier now that <br />Civil Recreation has been added to the website. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley stated that this seems like a good idea and agreed that charging for certain <br />programs creates a better buy in for attendance. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell asked what fees are currently being paid for the line dancing instructor or <br />the yoga instructor and if there was an opportunity to restructure this where instead of paying the <br />instructors, the City could let the instructor use the space since renting space can be expensive. <br />She added that this would be a way to offset the cost of adding the hours to the Recreation <br />Specialist. <br /> <br />Interim Parks and Assistant Public Works Director Riverblood said that this can be looked at and <br />gave an example of this by discussing the archery event at Elmcrest last week where the building <br />rental fees were reduced predicated upon the individual providing archery class for the community <br />and this event was filled up and there was a waiting list. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked when this employee goes to Public Works, if that portion of the <br />salary would be charged out under Public Works. <br /> <br />Interim Parks and Assistant Public Works Director Riverblood stated there are different line items <br />in the general fund for parks, streets, and so forth, but they are all together just in different pockets. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / August 23, 2022 <br />Page 13 of 16 <br /> <br />