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Councilmember Woestehoff said that he would prefer to hear some more justifications for the <br />additional hours, such as some examples of what has happened over the past 6 months and how it <br />has been beneficial. He said that he would lean towards the 30 hour position rather than 40 hours <br />because he does not see enough of a benefit to add the additional hours. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley said that the direction of this is that they would like to hear more about the <br />position. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht said he sees some of the programs that are being put on but another thing <br />he would find helpful would be to see the numbers of how many people are utilizing these <br />programs. He heard that pickleball was a huge success but he would like to see the numbers of the <br />different programs. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley added that they would like to hear more about the recreation specialist. He <br />moved onto the permit tech request. He asked if they wanted to hear more about this position. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht said that this sounds like a need. <br /> <br />Councilmember Woestehoff added that this sounded like a need unless they could contract this <br />out. He asked if they had contracted this out previously and if this was to replace it being contracted <br />out. <br /> <br />Administrative Services Director Lasher said that was something else and permit tech work is not <br />contracted out. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley asked if the Council was comfortable moving forward with this request. <br /> <br />The Council agreed to move forward. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley moved on to the discussion of new positions, which were for a community <br />service officer and a patrol officer. <br /> <br />Police Chief Katers explained that the community service officer (CSO) is a part-time position, <br />typically filled by a student going into law enforcement. They respond to non-primary calls for <br />service such as lock outs, animal containment services, parking enforcement, traffic control at <br />accidents, and things of this nature. They have utilized this position and currently have two CSOs, <br />which are not licensed police officers, but students going to school for law enforcement, which is <br />a requirement for the role. The addition would be to add an additional CSO to handle animal <br />containment services that was previously contracted out to North Metro Animal Control Center, <br />which has since gone out of business in June of 2022, causing animal containment to fall back on <br />the City to return dogs to their owners, and boarding them at Anoka. He said that his reasoning for <br />this request is that he would rather see his CSOs bringing animals down to the pound in Anoka <br />than peace officers leaving the streets of Ramsey to bring dogs down to Anoka. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht asked how this position relates to the volunteer or reserve officers that <br />they already have. <br />City Council Work Session / August 8, 2022 <br />Page 8 of 19 <br /> <br />