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Item No: 7A Meeting Date: April 12, 2010 Type of Business: Council Business Administrator Review: ____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Desaree Crane, Assistant City Clerk-Administrator and Nick DeBar, Public Works Director Item Title/Subject: Resolution 7602 Approving the Hire of Kevin Koch as Engineering/GIS Intern in the Public Works Department Background: The Engineering Intern (Ryan Johnson) resigned last fall and his last day of employment with Mounds View was September 4, 2009. This engineering intern worked in the Public Works (PW) Department and was first approved by the City Council in June 2006 in lieu of a seasonal maintenance worker. This minor shift in staffing has allowed PW to better tackle the many additional activities associated with the increase in public improvement projects that have occurred and are planned to occur. The City Council discussed the rehiring of the Intern position at their February 1, 2010 work session and at their February 8, 2010 regular meeting. To meet the current need and long-term flexibility of the job, the position title was changed from “Engineering Intern” to “Engineering/GIS Intern” and the position description was overhauled to better describe the overall duties and accommodate some shortcomings of the previous version. The Council approved the revised position description and authorized the advertisement for rehiring the intern position on February 8, 2010 (Res. 7574). Discussion: The rehiring of the intern position was advertised on Mounds View’s website, the League of Minnesota Cities website, and was also submitted to the GIS Consortium for distribution. The salary was advertised at $11.75 per hour without benefits. The City received 34 applications by the March 19, 2010 deadline and six candidates interviewed on March 31 and April 1, 2010. The interview panel consisted of Nick DeBar and Jim Hess (Engineering/IS Technician). It was the solid consensus of the panel to recommend Kevin Koch of Blaine, Minnesota to the position of Engineering/GIS Intern. Mr. Koch (pronounced “cook”) is wrapping up an AS degree in Land Surveying at Vermilion Community College in Ely, Minnesota and plans to pursue a BS degree in Mapping/Land Surveying at St. Cloud State next year. Mr. Koch interned for a Land Surveying company in New Brighton last year and will have GIS and AutoCAD certification at the end of this semester. Reference checks are complete and satisfactory and background checks are underway. The Engineering/GIS Intern is a temporary, part-time position geared toward current or recent college students graduates. 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.