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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — AUGUST 11, 2025 24 Councilmember Holden reminded Mayor Grant that he was here when there was a program manager and there was another rec coordinator under that position. Mayor Grant said he has just seen so many hires in this department. He'd like to see us use ICWC or hire more summer help. Continually adding to the Staff without growth in the City isn't good. Councilmember Weber asked if they are seeking one additional position. He heard that some of these positions existed previously. With the city not having grown, are they asking for one position? Mayor Grant said this would be three. City Administrator Jagoe said the Assistant City Engineer is now the Assistant Public Works Director. The Park and Rec Manager existed as two positions previously. The Office Support Specialist was a new position, as well. Councilmember Weber said office support is a necessary position today. He would argue that we haven't added anyone. The office support is not actively working in the field. Mayor Grant remembers a time when we didn't have a superintendent. He remembers a time when there was no office support specialist. So there are two positions. Councilmember Holden said the superintendent was a new position. Public Works was only supposed to work part time down there and help at City Hall. That never happened. Two new positions in the last eight years sounds right. She thought everything was supposed to be so organized after we hired the leads last year. Now there is another position to fill. Is there a way to hire seasonals beyond the summer? There are a lot of colleges here. Those kids need to work. She doesn't want to plow all the trails, knowing the conditions aren't great. It could be a liability issue for the City. We are spending more money on consulting fees for natural resource management and forestry. We send the public work guys out there. Mayor Grant asked if natural resources is another position. Councilmember Holden said no. It adds consultant fees. If we're training our public works guys to be the forestry and tree guys. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen doesn't think there will be a lot of fees associated with forestry. We'll see an invoice for having the consultant at the last meeting regarding tree species. That forestry item shouldn't be a big ticket item. We'll spend the most on GIS services next year. Councilmember Rousseau isn't hearing a good argument about the street lead and public works being removed from this plan. She thinks we'll probably want to push one out for budgeting reasons. She asked if we could push one out until later in the year, would the maintenance worker or Street Lead be better. She is in favor of ensuring we have reasonable and quality services.