Minutes - Council Work Session - 03/19/2024 - Special

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continuously looking at the effectiveness of staffing levels. He shared that he believes they have done a good job in regard to hiring new engineer inspectors as well as Public Works Staff for both short- and long-term needs. Mayor Kuzma noted that consolidating the Public Works building has been a big help. City Administrator Hagen stated that he has not put anything together to show where they are inefficient but the secondary aspect of this was to bring in a third party. He noted that the third party would help compare them against other organizations from a staffing level perspective, looking at the services that they are providing and other things of that nature. Councilmember Riley shared that he believes that action item 6 is very good as it gives them good data on exactly what is going on. City Administrator Hagen added that Economic Development Manager Sullivan does a report to the EDA every year on the business visits that he does. Councilmember Musgrove suggested that they find out from businesses what their needs are; however, this may already be addressed by the EDA rather than the Council. Councilmember Riley added that Economic Development Manager Sullivan does invite EDA members to come to the meetings with businesses. Councilmember Howell asked why the number of business visits a year have dropped over the last few years. City Administrator Hagen said that it is likely due to all of the other things on Economic Development Manager Sullivan’s plate that he has to attend to, so he does not have as much time to do so many business visits. He noted that the City has had a lot of interest so he is talking to prospective businesses on moving to Ramsey and this takes up a lot of his time. He added that a single business visit takes up a few hours out of a day. He discussed the action item of implementing QR codes. He said they have not developed this yet; however, they have done other improvements, such as a GIS map on the website to give more information on ongoing projects within the City. Councilmember Woestehoff noted that they just approved the updated nuisance code so this item can be struck from action item 8. Councilmember Musgrove asked if there are any City owned parcels that are not in the COR as addressed under action item 7. City Administrator Hagen stated that at this time, this item only focused on the City owned parcels in the COR to make them more shovel ready. City Council Work Session / March 19, 2024 Page 14 of 17