05-04-2015 Council Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION May 4, 2015 APPROVED 18o Chief Swenson explained that the department's model focuses on prevention and 181 activities and that model relies on officer availability, meaning who is available to be 182 proactive. Council Member Rafferty said he agrees with the proactive approach but he 183 also sees that the city hasn't added a lot of homes in the last few years; he wonders how 184 that impacts the department's needs. Chief Swenson explained that the officers' 185 availability rate is going down. Council Member Roeser recalled that the council 186 discussed funding in the budget in case certain levels of development occurred. He also 187 noted the officer that is assigned to the drug task force. Chief Swenson explained the 188 status of one officer who is assigned to the task force, who works with them but who 189 provides resources through the task force to the city. Council Member Roeser asked 190 about the use of forfeiture funds for personnel and Chief Swenson explained that use of 191 those funds is very limited and is not allowed as a regular budget item. Mayor Reinert 192 remarked that Lino Lakes is the only city in Anoka County that provides an officer to the 193 drug task force and he wonders why. Chief Swenson explained that the task force only 194 wants one city officer representative; there is an Anoka County Drug Task Force that 195 includes participants from many cities but not Lino Lakes. When asked about school 196 resource officers Chief Swenson said that the department provides one officer to the 197 middle school and are reimbursed by the school district for the cost. There was a 198 discussion about the department's fleet of vehicles. 199 20o The council discussed the relationship between the city's population growth and the 201 growth in numbers in the police department. Chief Swenson reviewed the department's 202 availability rate in correlation to the national average. Council members questioned the 203 leave and labor hours figures included in the report and Chief Swenson explained what is 204 included in time away (vacation, sick, comp, lunch, break). 205 206 Council Member Kusterman suggested that since the past council direction isn't clear, 207 there could be a reset to allow discussion again about the matter of staffing for 2016; he's 208 not committed at this time to adding an officer in July. 209 210 Mayor Reinert clarified that the council consensus is not to add a position but to have 211 discussion again as the 2016 budget comes forward. 212 213 Council Member Roeser asked if the department is at this time preparing to hire the 25th 214 officer and Chief Swenson explained that without adding an officer in July, they will be 215 at 25 (and 26 with the officer hired under the grant). 216 217 10. Report on Staff Overtime — Administrator Karlson explained that the council 218 requested and is receiving a monthly report on staff overtime. Based on the amount of 219 overtime received by staff (which is very little), he doesn't feel a monthly report is 220 necessary. There is a monthly budget report that he could provide to the council and it 221 does provide general information on overtime. 222