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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6.a. Minutes of the July 30, 2008 City Council Special Work Session Proceedings ROSEMOUNT CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION PROCEEDINGS JULY 30, 2008 CALL TO ORDER Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, a special work session of the Rosemount City Council was called to order at 6:37 p.m. on July 30, 2008 in the Conference Room at 2875 145'' Street West. Mayor Droste called the meeting to order with Council Members Baxter, Sterner and Shoe - Corrigan in attendance. Council Member DeBettignies arrived shortly thereafter. Staff members present included Interim City Administrator Lindquist, Chief of Police Kalstabakken, Finance Director May, City Clerk Domeier, City Engineer Brotzler, Fire Chief Aker and Assistant City Administrator Foster. DISCUSSION 2.A. Preliminary Budget Discussion Interim City Administrator Lindquist recapped the changes to the budget itemized in the staff report. Council Member Shoe - Corrigan questioned where the reduction in the pavement management would appear in the budget. Finance Director May stated that the City Council will need to provide direction on where the funds will be allocated. Discussion was held regarding the SKB Trust Fund donations and the affect on future budgets. Ms. Lindquist stated the City Council further discussions about the proposed SKB expansion and the trust fund will be scheduled. Police Chief of Police Kalstabakken s ummariz ed the 2009 police budget and provided more information about the projects happening in the Police Department. Mr. Kalstabakken provided more information on how a projected retirement would affect the budget. He explained that the officer promoted would move into a lesser rate and the new officer would be hired at a lower rate. Finance Director May added that the timing of the new officer and promotion of an officer would be factored into the retirement payout. Mr. May also pointed out the variables with the cashing in of sick time per union and personnel policies. Council Member Sterner questioned what the department was doing to become more fuel efficient. Mr. Kalstabakken explained the idling process and other steps the department was taking. Discussion was also held regarding the amount of time liaison officers were spending at the local school. Fire Fire Chief Aker stated there was a $30,000 reduction in the operating budget due to the removal of the fire marshal position and associated costs with the position. He talked about the increases in medical equipment, contribution for the relief association and the anticipated radio user fees with the DCC. Council Member Baxter stated concerns about the DCC related to the recent storms where the system was overloaded with calls. Mr. Aker provided an update on a recent meeting held with local officials about the DCC issues during the recent storm. He explained how the flow of calls are handled and dispatched. He provided more information on the plans to change the priority on the calls and a possible online response system. Chief of Police ROSEMOUNT CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION PROCEEDINGS JULY 30, 2008 Kalstabakken added that the DCC was overwhelmed with capacity issues during the storm. He added that the DCC made steps to improve the dispatching issues. Fire Chief Aker requested approval to purchase two vehicles as listed in the CIP. After discussion about the use of the vehicles, required safety modules and the low mileage on the current vehicles, the City Council requested that staff look at the maintenance costs to maintain the vehicles. Community Development Interim City Administrator /Community Development Director Lindquist summarized the information provided in the department budget memo. She noted the cost increase in forms and printing. She requested that more extensive training to be allowed for the Code Enforcement Officer training. The Council Members agreed that the Code Enforcement Officer should attend all the necessary training including out -of -state training if necessary. Ms. Lindquist provided more information about the department's 2009 work plan including special projects, inspections and fire marshal duties. Finance Finance Director May strongly believed that the staff level within the department should not change. He requested that the current part-time position be changed to full-time based upon the amount of time spent in the department on reporting, data entry and special assessments. Considerable discussion was held regarding the pros and cons of purchasing a software system to track special assessments. The City Council requested that Mr. May check into what other cities are doing to track special assessments along with the manual hours needed and provide more information at the next work session. Administration Assistant City Administrator Foster stated there was a decrease to the administration budget by $10,500 due to shifting all the safety consultant costs to the insurance budget. She added there was another decrease in the administration budget by $2,000 from the Cable Commission dues. Discussion was held regarding the City Council salaries and the options of moving to a COLA increase. Further discussion was also held regarding the cell phone policy for department heads and the mayor. 2.13. Transit Plan Chuck Rickert with WSB & Associates was in attendance to summarize the recent changes to the draft Transit Plan. The primary transit challenges for the City include MVTA Service Equity, Transit Service Needs and Transit Funding. Discussion was held about the placement of the new park and ride location. Staff would check with Cub Foods about using their parking lot as a park and ride location. If it would not work to use the Cub Foods parking lot, staff would investigate using the Community Center parking lot. Further discussion was held regarding the MVTA service equity. City