Agenda Packets - 2005/12/12 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council November 28, 2005 Regular Meeting Page 8 1 Councilmember Stigney noted the expense for a laptop for the temporary inspector. Director 2 Ericson stated that cost estimate would be for the top end and staff would not expect to spend 3 $2,000 but this will not be a home use laptop. He explained that the $2,000 figure establishes a 4 maximum budget threshold and would be considered a guideline. 5 6 Councilmember Stigney asked if there is a separate rating of commercial for a laptop. Finance 7 Director Beer stated the primary need is for memory and speed because of the graphics needed 8 for the inspector’s job. Those features will generate a higher cost. 9 10 Councilmember Stigney asked what is required. Finance Director Beer stated most laptops come 11 with a 1.3 Exceleron processor clock speed and 256K for memory. The building inspector will 12 need a laptop with a 1.8 to 2.2 clock speed for the processor and at least 1 meg of RAM to run 13 the graphic programs. 14 15 Councilmember Flaherty stated he also thinks that $2,000 is excessive and that a laptop with the 16 Windows XP business version would cost in the range of $1,300, including the RAM and clock 17 speed that is needed. 18 19 Councilmember Flaherty asked if the City doesn’t already have additional laptops. Director 20 Ericson stated there may be one spare laptop and it is being moved to one of the pump stations 21 for a water employee to use. He stated he is not aware of a spare laptop sufficient to operate the 22 current programs since they were purchased in 1997 or 1998. He explained these are the same 23 laptops used in the past by Councilmembers. 24 25 City Administrator Ulrich stated there are several newer laptops from two years ago. One is 26 available for administrative use and the other is used by the Utility Department. 27 28 Finance Director Beer explained that the intent is that this person would not have a desktop 29 computer and a laptop would be their fully assigned computer. 30 31 Mayor Marty asked if other Councilmembers still have a City laptop. He stated he brought his in 32 several times because it is quite slow. Councilmember Stigney stated he still has a City laptop. 33 34 Mayor Marty asked what happened to the other laptops. City Administrator Ulrich stated he 35 would have to check. 36 37 Councilmember Flaherty asked about the vehicle for the temporary inspector and how many 38 vehicles are available for employees. Finance Director Beer stated there are three vehicles. 39 40 Councilmember Flaherty asked if there is a need to purchase a fourth vehicle for this position 41 alone. Director Ericson stated staff believes it is needed since they are daily use vehicles and in 42 use fifty percent of the time or more. He stated staff could use their personal vehicles and submit 43 for mileage but sometimes it is good to have a marked vehicle out in the community. He noted 44 that one car may not be in service in several years and at that point, this new vehicle will be 45