11-26-2012 Council Minutes (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION November 26, 2012 APPROVED CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE : November 26, 2012 5 TIME STARTED : 5:30 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 6:30 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council Member Stoesz, O'Donnell, 8 Rafferty, Roeser and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 10 11 12 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Public Safety Director John 13 Swenson; Community Development Director Michael Grochala; City Engineer Jason 14 Wedel; City Clerk Julie Bartell 15 16 1. Records Technician Position—Public Safety Director Swenson noted that this matter 17 appears on the Council Consent Agenda. The Police Department has been involved in a 18 hiring process and has two top individuals that will be interviewed again after background 19 is complete. Hiring for this position would fill a vacancy that is an authorized position in 20 the current and proposed budget. When Council Member Rafferty asked where the new 21 hire would fall on the salary scale for this position, Chief Swenson explained that it 22 would depend on qualification including experience. 23 24 2. Assessment Services—Contract with Anoka County—Administrator Karlson noted �-- 25 that consideration of this contract is on the regular agenda for this evening. It was 26 postponed from the last council meeting to allow time for staff to research other options. 27 He has provided information on three methods used by cities. The first is to hire an in- 28 house assessor as is done in thirteen cities in the metro area(average salary is over 29 $100,000). The budget for Anoka County Services is $129,000 and his estimate for in- 30 house, all inclusive of salary, benefits, equipment, etc, would be in the range of$130,000. 31 There are four cities in Anoka County that contract with a private firm for assessment 32 services. A negative for that scenario is quality control—service levels go up and down 33 and can impact quality (an article is attached to the staff report). He added that it would 34 take a year to implement a new contract. He recommends that the city remain with 35 Anoka County for the five year period. 36 37 Council Member Stoesz indicated that he also has done research on what services are 38 available. Although he hasn't finalized his research enough to fully answer the question 39 of why cities utilize the county, he is comfortable staying with Anoka County with the 40 information received. Council Member Roeser concurred that continuation of the current 41 services with staff that knows the city appears to be the best option. 42 43 3. Review Regular Council Agenda - The council reviewed the agenda and questions 44 were posed as follows: 45 1