08/31/2000 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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• been and will continue to delegate tasks to lower paid employees of his firm to make better use of his time and to keep contract costs down. The contract is on a "not to exceed" basis and the City pays for actual costs. Wessel noted that the City Administrator analyzed the contract and alternatives and recommends continuing the contract. Powell added that the City should do the analysis each year to determine if it's more cost effective to continue to contract or to hire engineering staff. Wessel then discussed the cost centers for Environmental Services, Solid Waste Abatement, and Forestry. One staff person is allocated among these cost centers. Rolek clarified that the $25,000 capital outlay in Forestry is for trees purchased by the City, then resold to developers. Public Services Public Services Director Rick DeGardner presented the proposed budgets for divisions in his department. The Streets Division is requesting half an additional maintenance position. The afected employee currently works half time in Utilities and half time in Streets. The Fleet Management budget now includes insurance for all vehicles. The Government Buildings Division is requested a full time Building Custodian to assist • the existing Building Maintenance Technician. The net cost of the custodian would be $7,000 because the position would allow the City to drop cleaning contracts for old city hall and the fire station, eliminate costs for temporary cleaning assistance, and assume responsibility for cleaning the Early Childhood Learning Center in return for payment. The Parks budget remains essentially unchanged. It includes $13,000 for park/trail development. • The Recreation budget includes salary increases for temporary employees in order to compete with other employers such as McDonald's. DeGardner was asked if the fees charged for recreation programs cover the costs. He responded that the goal has been to break even and all the programs except the playground program do that. Recreation Supervisor Barry Bernstein added that the City keeps informed of rates in other cities and ours are in the average to higher than average range. The Streets budget is essentially unchanged except for salary adjustments. DeGardner then referred to a list of Capital Outlay items that are not funded in the proposed 2001 budget. The list includes trails and parks and maintenance items. Council Members expressed concern that there is not money included for those items. Residents have made it clear this is a high priority. Waite Smith noted that staff understands that but couldn't see how to fund the items from the General Fund without a significant tax increase.