04-11-2011 CC - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 7C Meeting Date: April 11, 2011 Type of Business: Council Business Administrator Review: ____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Nick DeBar, Public Works Director Item Title/Subject: Resolution 7770 Authorizing the Advertisement for the Engineering/GIS Intern Position Background: An engineering intern for the Public W orks (PW) Department was first approved by the City Council in June 2006 in lieu of a seasonal maintenance worker to assist with the administrative/engineering staff. This minor shift in staffing was proposed to better enable PW to administer activities associated with the many upcoming public improvement projects planned at that time. The position description was tweaked in February 2010 between internships to include GIS (geographical information systems) duties and to better describe the overall duties and accommodate some shortcomings of the previous version. The Engineering/GIS Intern is a temporary, part-time position geared toward current or recent college students in a related field. This employment arrangement allows PW to obtain skilled help at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time, regular employee. Current PW Staff have extensive experience and skill in working with AutoCAD and ArcGIS, the software programs already owned by the City, which will, in turn, allow a current or recent college student to obtain “real world”, on-the-job experience resulting in a “win-win” situation. The position is fully funded by the Water and Sanitary Sewer Enterprise Funds and has no impact on the General Fund. Each internship cycle is typically one to three years, but and there is no guarantee made or implied for this duration and the position could be eliminated by the City Council at any time. Discussion: Kevin Koch (pronounced “cook”) worked as the Engineering/GIS Intern last summer and intermittently during the school year. Mr. Koch recently submitted his resignation, indicating that he has changed degree majors (from mapping/land surveying to business) and he is planning to work full-time at his father’s business this summer. Public Works would like to refill this position before the busy construction season begins. In addition to assisting with daily activities, the intern position helps Public Works with overdue and much-needed long-term goals and objectives. Previous interns have been instrumental in helping the Department achieve major advances with project development, traffic count analysis, capital improvement project planning, and archiving of closed project files utilizing the City’s Laserfiche software program. In addition to these activities, Mr. Koch was primarily focused on furthering the creation of the citywide GIS base map and database. Another primary task for the intern this summer will be to expand the GIS base map and database to include inventorying and evaluating all city-owned traffic signs. This information will be utilized in developing a traffic sign reflectivity management plan. This plan is (another) unfunded Federal mandate that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires all municipalities, counties, and states have in-place and be implementing by January 15, 2012. All primary traffic signs will need to meet the new reflectivity standards by January 15, 2015 and all secondary traffic signs by January 15, 2018.