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• FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES _2_ July 9, 2003 POLICY AGENDA: Consideration of a Joint Powers A reement with the Cit of Roseville to Provide Computer Services to the City of Falcon Hei hg_ts Administrator Worthington said that the City of Falcon Heights has contracted for consultant services to provide network support for the city's computer network and web site hosting service over the past several years. In 2002, the city's long-time consultant retired, leaving the city without computer support. In addition, the city does not have adequate staff resources to provide these services in-house. In 2002, as part of the 2003 budgeting process, the Council directed staff to look for cooperative service arrangements with other cities to provide needed services. In the past year, the city has contracted with the City of Little Canada for building inspection services, as well as continued our longstanding contract with Lauderdale for the provision of fire service. This arrangement will allow our city to take advantage of the expertise and staffing of Roseville, while receiving the needed services to keep our computer network running smoothly. Additionally, this will enable Falcon Heights to have • computer network redundancy in case of the loss of our internal network. The cost of this joint powers arrangement is $8,700 per annum. In 2001, the city paid 10,721 and in 2002, the city spent $3,807 on outside consultants, for a total of $14,528 over those two years. We budgeted $6,000 for technical support in 2003. In addition, we have one part- time staff person who, on top of her regular duties in the planning and zoning/code enforcement, handles some of our network issues internally. Because of her increased workload over the past year, it makes sense that we transfer the responsibility for network management to Roseville, and enable her to focus more on her duties in planning and zoning and code enforcement. This arrangement will be cost effective and more efficient for our small city. It will meet Budget Goa14: To provide a responsive and effective city government, and Strategy 5: Effectively manage the city's consulting and personnel resources. Council member Kuettel asked Administrator Worthington to explain, for the benefit of the cable audience, what IT means, which other communities have contracted with Roseville for IT services, and what protections would be provided for City e-mails and computer files. Administrator Worthington said that IT means Information Technology. Lauderdale, Oakdale, Shoreview, and Arden Hills have contracted with Roseville for IT services. The Falcon Heights a-mail and web site systems will remain confidential and under our control. The web site will continue to be managed by Falcon Heights staff.