01-21-92 CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL MINUTES JANUARY 21, 1992 12 M/S/P Williams/Dick Johnson - to direct the staff to send a letter to Washington County with a copy to city of Oakdale indicating upon further consideration of the issue of 10th Street from Helmo to County Road 13 significant questions remain which need to be answered including, but not limited to, a proper traffic study, comparisons with similar roads in the area and alternative routes for handling the traffic including, but not limited to putting 4th Street through to County Road 13 and whether or not the upgrade to 4-lanes is justified. (Motion carried.3-2: Mayor Johnson: I agree there are some concerns, but feels comfortable that we answered most of the questions at the last meeting and should let the process run.; Mottaz: I think in part this motion is justified as far as requesting new traffic counts, but would go along with postponing voting on this motion until January 28th.) 9. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT: 10. CITY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: A. Cost of Living Increase for Staff (Continuation) At the last meeting, the Council directed the staff to look at the budget to see if we could find the funds (excluding reserves) that would enable the staff a pay increase. The following was proposed: The payroll budget for 1991 was $330,410 and the actual expenditure was $310,925, a savings of $19,485. Part of this can be attributed to not hiring a fourth maintenance employee until November, rather than the first of the year which was originally proposed. Four of the nine employees the City has are salaried which means that no matter how many hours they work, (with the exception of the Maintenance Foreman for snowplowing and emergency call outs), they receive the same pay. Some of the employees that have earned overtime have chosen comp time versus pay. This is a benefit to the city as we match social security, PERA, and Medicare on all wages paid. MIS/ Mottaz/Dick Johnson - to grant a a 3% cost of living pay raise to all the city employees retroactive to January 1, 1992 and this money be taken out of the payroll budget. Councilman Williams indicated he was interested in giving the City staff a raise if we could find the money. This would require more information such as updated figures from the budget for 1991 and 1992 before the Council votes on this motion. There is no such thing as a payroll budget, it's part of the General Fund. We are missing $17,000 this year from the state cutbacks, vastly overspent in 1991 for attorney and planner costs, and this money has to come from somewhere.