07-22-2024 - Council Work Session Minutes

Home Search

Lino Lakes City Council Work Session Minutes DATE: July 22, 2024 TIME STARTED: 6:00 P.M. TIME ENDED: 6:17 P.M. LOCATION: City Hall Community Room MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Rafferty, Councilmembers Cavegn, Lyden, Stoesz and Ruhland MEMBERS ABSENT: None Staff Members Present: City Administrator Sarah Cotton, City Clerk Roberta Colotti, Community Development Director Michael Grochala, Human Resources/Communications Manager Meg Sawyer, City Engineer Diane Hankee, Finance Director Hannah Lynch, and Public Safety Director John Swenson 1. Call to Order and Roll Call Mayor Rafferty called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. Setting the Agenda: Addition or Deletion of Agenda Items The agenda was adopted as presented. 3. BS&A Software Conversion Update The Finance Director reported that BS&A Software has been contracted to provide software to serve the Finance, Community Development, and Human Resources Departments. The original schedule for implementation was Fall 2025, however, they have moved our project up on their schedule to December 2024. The Finance Director reported that staff has started working with BS&A staff to communicate current processes and procedures so it can be determined how to best implement them in the new software. One process that will need to change is the practice of credit card processing fees. Currently, with two different software's for the building department and utility billing, credit card fees are passed on to the customer for building but paid for by the City for utility billing. With the new software, all fees need to be treated the same. Staff is proposing all fees be passed on to the customer which would be a change for utility billing that would be communicated in advance. Utility billing customers would still have the ability to avoid credit card fees by signing up for auto -pay or by mailing in a check. Councilmember Stoesz asked how many other cities absorb the cost of processing credit cards. The Finance Director stated that approximately 5% of cities were reported to cover the cost.