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• seasonally work as the Parks and Recreation Supervisor, and then assist Mary and me in the office as an administrative assistant. The person we have in mind for this role is Ann Davy, our current Parks and Recreation Supervisor. Ann has many skills and fits very nicely with our staff: In addition, we did budget money last year for apart-time secretarial position, but have not yet filled that position. The residents of Falcon Heights have come to expect a high level of service from city staff. As you know, staff spends a lot of time on the phone and in-person with residents to address concerns and complaints. In addition, staff is currently working on a number of special and ongoing projects, and we find ourselves increasingly either short-staffed (especially in terms of the front counter or answering phones), or in need of clerical and administrative help in order for us to complete our work assignments and meet the ongoing needs of the community (permits, plan reviews, special issues, citizen service, etc...). We aze currently in a situation where I cannot ask our staff to take on any more projects or programs without the danger of burn-out occurring. Having afull-time equivalent who would work in both areas would be ideal. This is how we had hoped to approach the position originally; however, at that time we were uncertain as to whether or not we'd be able to find a person with both skills. I feel certain that Ann is not only capable of accomplishing those tasks, but hiring her is an opportunity to add skills, expertise, and a great employee to our staff full-time. We estimate that if we bring Ann on full-time, it will add approximately $16, 060 to our budget (salary and benefits). • In addition, you will see a recommended 3% increase in employee compensation for 2005. As always, I am concerned about retaining the high-quality, hard working employees that we have, and I made some other adjustments in the budget (cutting other line items, looking for additional revenue sources), in order to offer a more attractive compensation amount to our employees. I continue to believe that our employees are our strongest asset, and I want to remain in the 90`~ percentile in terms of compensation, as the city council directed during our salary survey in 2003. A 3% salary increase adds $7, 600 to our budget. Street Repairs: This year, we saw five sinkholes develop azound catch basins and water main repair sites. We are not sure if this is coincidence, or part of a trend where catch basin structures installed 15-20 years ago are failing (which is the case in two of the sinkholes). So, we aze recommending a new line item for "street repairs" of $7,000, and a $2,000 increase in engineering expenses. Our plan is twofold: 1) train Dave Tretsven to identify problems in catch basin structures and do a "census" of all the catch basins in the city; and 2) repair them when they aze still "repairable" rather than wait until they've failed completely and need to be replaced. This more proactive approach is in keeping with our overall philosophy of strong, well-maintained infrastructure. This adds $9, 000 to the budget. •