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<br />· Interest earnings: $100,000 <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund stated the 2007 budget amendment will come back to Council as a consent <br />agenda item. This makes Council aware that the. building permits are coming in under revenue <br />and makes staff aware they have to stay within a more restrictive budget. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig inquired about the possibility of outsourcing staff to neighboring <br />communities. <br /> <br />Community Development Director Trudgeon indicated staff is open to looking at this possibility. <br /> <br />Councilmember Dehen asked what is being done with the inspectors' time with the decrease in <br />building permits. . <br /> <br />Community Development Director Trudgeon stated there are three inspectors going every day. <br />Each inspector has a capacity of 3,000 inspections per year. In 2005 and 2006 they were at about <br />96% capacity; from March 2006 to 2007 they were at about 82% of capacity. Each new house <br />has about 12 to 14 inspections, and each one takes about 'li hour. Inspection staff is also still <br />looking at septic systems; every third year they need to make sure the systems are pumped and <br />cleaned. They also manage rental housing with about 250 rental units in the community and <br />about 150 to 200 inspected each year from top to bottom. In addition, some of the priorities of <br />the city planners have been shifted to building inspection. At some point when this rebounds, <br />inspection staff will be at full capacity. Mr. Trudgeon stated there is currently enough capacity <br />within the organization to absorb other things. Also, this year a new building code will be going <br />on-line. If2008 is another bad year there may need to be a serious discussion on how to address <br />it. The important thing is that they have often talked about building permits being down and <br />looking to the building division to correct that. However, building permit revenue is a swing <br />revenue. It is self-sustaining, but it is the additional money that is not there this year to spread <br />throughout the organization. <br /> <br />Interim City Administrator Nelson indicated staff would also like to discuss an overview of <br />department budgets with the Council to provide a more general understanding of where the <br />money gets spent and the service they provide on a day to day basis. <br /> <br />Consensus of the Council was to include a discussion of the department budgets on a future work <br />session agenda. <br /> <br />MAYOR, COUNCIL AND STAFF INPUT <br /> <br />None <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / July 31, 2007 <br />Page 17 of18 <br />