Agenda Packets - 2006/04/24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council April 10, 2006 Regular Meeting Page 14 1 Councilmember Flaherty stated the yearly maintenance fee for website hosts can be quite 2 expensive. 3 4 Jonathan Thomas, 8480 Groveland Road, stated he is a computer systems engineering consultant, 5 and indicated that anything can be changed on the website. He stated the web is like a book with 6 chapters and sub-chapters, and all of the pages are a document. He explained the language to tie 7 it all together can be complicated and will vary with internet providers, but the City does have 8 complete control over the entire website. 9 10 Mr. Thomas stressed that this position needs to understand the issues with security, and this may 11 not come necessarily by sending the person to classes. 12 13 Councilmember Flaherty asked Mr. Thomas if there is any hard coding done by the website host 14 to limit access. Mr. Thomas indicated all material is soft coded. He added there is tremendous 15 competition by internet service providers that leads to a much lower price. 16 17 Councilmember Gunn indicated she was not that concerned about the lack of website experience. 18 She stated the web site is established and there is not that much to learn for the website. She 19 suggested a class on web page design might be available through Community Education 20 department. 21 22 Councilmember Thomas stated that website design is not difficult, but the position is to manage 23 the website and the information. She stated the City has put certain tasks off because it is waiting 24 for the right person to come on board with the appropriate knowledge. She stated there would be 25 further delays in the communication forum until this person receives the proper training. 26 27 Mayor Marty stated this was also his concern, but due to the fact that Director Ericson was one of 28 the interviewers and has been the only person to work on the website ever since he put it 29 together, it gave him some confidence that this person could learn the website part of the 30 position. He added that the employee would also be on a probationary period. 31 32 Councilmember Gunn stated the City does need to allow her the opportunity to complete training 33 and courses. 34 35 MOTION/SECOND: GUNN/FLAHERTY. To waive the reading and adopt Resolution 6782 36 Authorization to Hire a Communications Coordinator for the Administration. 37 38 Councilmember Stigney asked for the resolution to be read. He stated the position should be a 39 three-fourths time cable coordinator that is paid by the cable franchise fee as it has always been. 40 He stated this full time position will result in taxpayers picking up the 25 percent additional cost 41 and there would need to be full-time employee benefits paid. He stated the additional 42 communication duties could have been assigned to an existing full-time Staff member. He stated 43 he does not support hiring an additional person. 44 45