07-07-2014 Council Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION July 7, 2014 APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE : July 7, 2014 5 TIME STARTED : 5:37 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 7:53 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council Member Stoesz, Kusterman, 8 Rafferty (arr. @ 6 pm), Roeser and Mayor 9 Reinert 10 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 11 12 13 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Community Development 14 Director Michael Grochala; City Engineer Diane Hankee; City Planner Katie Larsen; 15 Public Services Director Rick DeGarner; Public Safety Director John Swenson; City 16 Clerk Julie Bartell 17 18 1. New Brighton Public Safety Presentation — Public Safety Director Swenson 19 introduced the City of New Brighton Public Safety Director Bob Jacobson and Tony 20 Paetznick, the city's Deputy Director of the Police Division, who were present to discuss 21 their city's public safety model and explain its history. 22 23 Using a PowerPoint presentation, Chief Jacobson explained how the New Brighton Fire 24 Department and Police Department, once separate, are now joined as a Department of 25 Public Safety. The move to a public safety department model that would join the two 26 departments as well as the emergency management function made sense because it would 27 improve communication between functions, it came at a time when the leadership of the 28 departments was transitioning, and the public safety facilities needed work. The process 29 used to create the public safety department involved looking at the reasons for merging 30 (enhancement was the number one reason), working through the concept with the elected 31 officials and advisory commissions, and development of a plan of action. The transition 32 occurred in an eight-month period. Designing a new department meant looking at job 33 descriptions, changing the city code, developing a mission statement and looking at space 34 needs so that a new facility could be planned. 35 36 Deputy Chief Paetznick reviewed a section of the PowerPoint. He first noted that the 37 population of New Brighton is very close to Lino Lakes. As part of their transition, their 38 CSO (Community Service Officer) position was changed to PSO (Public Service Officer) 39 because they also serve as firefighters. He noted that the clerical services are fluid 40 between the two functions (police and fire) also. Their fire department includes: 47 paid 41 on-call firefighters (and they have no problem keeping the positions filled); 1 FTE fire 42 marshall; 12 paid cross-trained; and 7 FTE employees that are able to assist on 43 emergencies. Emergency medical services continue to be handled by the Police 44 Department and rarely involve the fire personnel; they have Allina ambulance services