09-23-19-R - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — August 19, 2019 9 E. Council Tracker City Administrator Perrault and staff reviewed the Council Request Tracker with the City Council. Perry Park Dog Park Improvements and Old Snelling Trail and McCracken Lane were removed. Additional columns for planned completion date and revised completion date were requested to be added. Items for the Vacant House on Brighton Way and 2020 Corrections Resources (ICWC) plan were added. Council agreed to continue the meeting past 8:00 p.m. F. Public Works Office Support Discussion (Bench Handout) City Administrator Perrault noted that the Personnel Committee had a meeting to begin preliminary discussions regarding Public Works staffing. Current and future needs of the department were discussed. Staff believed one of the organizational needs is to hire a Public Works Administrative Assistant. Title and grade would be an office support specialist, similar to the front desk, but this position would be at the Public Works facility. Interim Public Works Director/City Engineer Blomstrom added the goal is to increase the productivity and functionality of the department. Currently, most calls for service are going directly to the Public Works Superintendent (Jeff) so he is saturated with phone calls while he is trying to be the subject matter expert, show the staff how to do projects and be a good manager. He said most public works departments have at least one administrative support person that can focus on giving good customer service. Many calls could be screened and answered by an administrative assistant. A work order system would help manage work as it's coming in. Arden Hills doesn't have a work order system, and this position could coordinate that. Other duties could include coordinating material orders, inventory, implementing and monitoring a training and safety program. His advice to improve customer service would be to get a strong administrative assistant. City Administrator Perrault said that even though there is a working foreman position vacant, staff feels the administrative assistant would be the most beneficial for current operations. Estimated budget savings would be $17,000. Councilmember Holmes felt that a lot of issues could be resolved by having someone taking some of the burden of the Superintendent but not by adding another working foreman. Councilmember Holden asked if there would be enough work for the position as a full FTE. Interim Public Works Director/City Engineer Blomstrom replied that there is a risk of not having safety training covered, along with regulatory reporting. The City can be audited and they levy fines on cities. Having a work order system is one of the most fundamental things of having efficient work flow, that also keeps records of where staff spends the most time and identifies areas that can be improved. This person would also keep the Safety Committee moving forward. Councilmember McClung said he'd like to have further discussion along with Public Works Director/City Engineer position. He'd like to look at the whole structure of the department.