Minutes - Council - 06/12/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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authorize new hires; he thinks the economy is in a downturn and he does not believe now is the time to do this. He is not opposed to looking at it in the future. He does not think it is good timing with the economy downturn and perhaps some of their employees not going out on inspections. He understands this is a different position. There is a definite slowdown from his perspective in building and engineering and that type of thing. For that reason he is opposed to this at this point. Councilmember Elvig stated he is not a real fan of adding staff unless it is absolutely necessary. That being said, sitting on the Public Works Committee he has a close feel for what is going on in Public Works and Engineering, and some of the stumbling blocks, and where opportunities are. He does not see this tied with the slowdown of the economy. They are doing a lot of improvements in the City, including County roads, City roads, water treatment wells, sewer, and water. This person can be part of that and can earn revenue from that. He imagines a good $600,000 to $1,000,000 is spent on outside consultants for engineering; that money is being spent. In business if you cannot afford the tool today you subcontract until you build enough business to do it in-house. In-house they have the control and the synergy of the people. He supports this move with more supervision in-house and more control, taking out the cost of subcontracting and bringing it in-house. Eight direct reports and sixteen under-reports is too much for one person to supervise. He would support moving forward on this. Councilmember Look stated he agrees with regard to Councilmember Elvig's statements about business, but does not know that he agrees with regards to government comparisons. He finds in many things government is proven to be inefficient. The City is looking at bringing in billing from Connexus where they have one employee doing the job and the City is looking at 1 112 employees. From that standpoint he does not know that government is always effective in these types of hires. His concern is that they are hiring today for growth tomorrow. He has to agree with Councilmember Dehen that he does not think the growth is necessarily happening at what they are hoping. He does not know that they have proven the fire on this yet. He would not support this. Councilmember Olson stated she would support this. She knows the engineering staff has worked short handed for at least the last year. She would not support it if there were a true downturn in the economy, but the only downturn is in the real estate sector; the economy is not experiencing a downturn. They need to make sure there are enough people on the engineering staff to get the job done, and the only way they will do it is if they hire another person. Councilmember Elvig stated he appreciates Councilmember Look's position on this. He has not met a manager that did not need more money, tools and staff, and you hold back as hard and as fast as you can. However, a good portion ofthis position is revenue generating. To him it is not a taxpayer issue as much as whether they need the position or not. Councilmember Strommen stated one of the things that persuaded her on this is the ability to reduce consultant hours and bring some of those in-house. The Council spends a lot of time talking about how they bid consultants and the process. It would be a lot simpler if they could handle some of these activities in-house. She cons~ders that, along with all the other projects the City has, and that this is an engineering position, where she does not think engineering is as tied to growth as other positions. Councilmember Dehen stated if they are truly understaffed as they claim, he would ask why they are subsidizing some of their workers to leave their jobs and paying them a wage for half the time they are with Habitat for Humanity. He finds some inconsistencies. He would support reducing some of the City's consultant fees, but is not quite buying the argument that they are understaffed and need more help when they are sending people out to work part time on the City's dime. Public Works Director Olson stated no engineering staff has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity at this time. Councilmember Dehen stated the Habitat for Humanity City Council / June 12, 2007 Page 26 of 29