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• FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES _~_ December 6, 2004 Truth in Taxation Hearin (continued) Administrator Worthington said the business license fee helps to offset the cost of the fire inspections each year. The Building Official is employed by the City of Little Canada for Building Official services. The mechanical inspector is a private contractor who provides those services. Our plumbing inspector is Steve Westerhaus through Little Canada. Electrical inspections are provided through the State Board of Electricity and are not noted in the budget. Mr. Lageson asked about Emergency Preparedness expenditures-$4,600 for supplies. This seems like one of those mushy little buckets where you can put stuff in. Do we really need that much? Last year the City used $2,400. Administrator Worthington said there are some additional expenditures that the City needs to make in the next year to make sure the City is ready for disaster situations. For a long time the City did not do any planning or expenditures on emergency preparedness, so again, the City is playing catch up in that area. This is for emergency preparedness, disaster preparedness planning, and supplies to make sure the City can respond in the event of a major disaster or emergency. This won~ld be complementary to police and fire. One of the things the City spent money on this year was a mobile EOC (portable Emergency Operations Center) that can be used anywhere. The City needs to add some equipment to that item. Some of the instrumentation is very old. The City needs to add a computer next year; very minor but important items. She explained the EOC is a movable work box. The City also needs to do some work in the back part of the City Council Chambers to provide network and electrical connections so that end of the room can be utilized as an emergency operations center if need be. Right now the City doesn't have a dedicated space, just a work box. Mayor Gehrz said the City didn't have a budget for this before. After September 11, that changed and the City Council said it is our responsibility to better protect our residents by making sure we are putting some money into emergency preparedness. Mr. Lageson asked about Fire Relief Expenditures-Minnesota Sate Aid. What's the Fire Relief Association? Administrator Worthington said the Fire Relief Association is the retirement fund for the firefighters. The firefighters are paid on call and receive $8.00 per callout. This is not a money making venture on their part. They can contribute to the retirement fund and the City puts the Minnesota State Aid into that fund each year, but no other money. The fire aid is a pass through. The City gets the revenue from the State of Minnesota and it is based on insurance premiums from the State. It is a tax or fee the State imposes in arder to provide fire services statewide. The money is passed to the Fire Relief Association and they invest it through a broker. When they retire they can draw on it, depending upon their years of service. Mayor Gehrz said it is one incentive to encourage people to stay with the Fire Department. It helps to have that incentive benefit because it is very expensive to train and equip firefighters. We want • them to stay.