02-03-1997 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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formalize. I have discussed at length with our two department heads and the guys in DPW the • questions this proposes, and will with the Council as well if you choose to. This issue may lead to questions about who is in charge of this area and whether we need two departments or not. My observation has been that these are organizational questions and not personality issues. We can discuss this more fully if the Council chooses to, but I would like to get the agreement approved at the February 10 meeting. Bel Rae Grant Application: I want to inform the Council that there is a state grant allocation for construction of buildings for children and teen activities. The funds are through the Minnesota Department of Children, Family&Learning and is called a Youth Initiative grant. Its purpose is to help design, furnish, equip, repair, replace or construct parks and recreation buildings and school buildings for enrichment activities. We were clued into this in our discussions with Community Ed on their Bel Rae space. I have asked Mary Saarion to work on this and if successful, it could be part of the Bel Rae project. It has a February submission date, but unlike most other grants, it does not require any Council action for submittal. Council approval will be needed later on however, so doing this does not commit the City to anything at this point. I don't want to get overly committed to the idea of receiving this money at this time, but we understand grants have been committed for up to $500,000. City Hall Office Hours: Another subject the Council may be interested in is stars consideration of changing City Hall office hours. Currently we are open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I find that with employees working only 40 hour work weeks, this can cause some problems in coverage and payroll accounting. While customer service has been a high priority, I am not sure this objective is being clearly met by these hours. We have discussed changing to an 8 to 5 day with perhaps Mondays open until 6. Another option may be 7:30 to 4:30 days. For now I don't see changing until spring at the earliest, and even then try to coincide it with a change in the office layout. I see this as an efficiency move and not a detriment to customer service. With a new phone system and improvements that can be made to our internet capacity, I think we can do several things to improve customer access to City Hall this year. Legal Fees and Attorney Retainer: Last month I discussed with Bruce and Bob Long setting up a clear work relationship with the City Attorney. After a couple of drafts, the letter from Bob Long lays out an arrangement I find acceptable. I am concerned that in 1996 our use of the City Attorney was not controlled adequately, although I am satisfied with his work. Another concern and one I need to work some more on is our relationship with our TIF attorney at Briggs& Morgan. I want to clarify that as well with Cathy Bennett so as not to create conflict or duplication in our legal areas. Golf Course Litigation Status: Bob Long will be present to update the Council on the golf course litigation. For this we will be asking the Council to close the meeting. That is all for now. Have a good weekend and see you Monday evening at 6 p.m.