CCP 05-20-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . . ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES APRIL 8, 2002 ~ Lll ";:,j/Ili ~ 10 time commitment for thc City Adrninistrator. He stated hc strongly believed it made sense to go down this path at this time and hc would continue to support this. Councilmember Rem stated shc had spoken with the City Administrator last wcck, and from her perspective, shc did not see why the Director of Adrninistration was needed at this time. Shc indicated she was not convinced that they nccdcd that position. She stated she would support the position of Director of Maintenancc and Operations. Shc statcd that they had discussed about getting consultants doing somc of the TCAAP work, and while it would takc somc organization, it was not expccted that staff would take all of the responsibility. She stated she did not see there was a need to hire somcone. Councilmembcr Larson stated he was in favor of going forward with the Plan. Hc indicated it was his belief that TCAAP was taking off and the planning work was bcginning. He stated this planning would involvc a whole range of activities. He pointed out that Guidant was also coming up. He stated there was a wholc range of things the City had put on the back burncr because they did not have the capabilities and expertise. He statcd thc largc part of the Director of Administration position was working on TCAAP and economic development and not just administrative supervision. He statcd there were all kinds of things that staff could not do because they did not have sufficient people. Hc statcd somconc was going to devotc a lot of time to TCAAP at somc point in the future. He indicatcd this made scnse to bring on an additional person at this time. Councilmcmber Aplikowski stated shc might agrce to hirc a Director of Administration if shc believed more wholly that TCAAP was going to happen in the next 6 ~ 10 months, but she did not have that feeling, and again she stated they hired the Administrator to run the City and she would rather sce him do that. Shc statcd she would bc much happicr if thc City Administrator stayed as is, and they hired a specialist when they necded one. Shc statcd shc was not convinced they needed somcone at this time. She stated she wanted the City Administrator to run the City. Mayor Probst indicated he understood Councilmcmber Aplikowski's view, and he too wanted the City Administrator to run the City and he believed Mr. Lynch was doing a very good job of doing that. However, he indicated, after having participated in all of the meetings in the last two wccks, he was convinced they werc on the brink of making TCAAP happcn. He stated there would be huge implications with this in terms of contracts and monitoring everything. He stated thc City's senior executivc should be the person to take care of this. He indicated he did not want a "hired gun" to represent thc City's interest. He belicvcd thc City Administrator should be the represcntativc for the City. He indicated the City Administrator would be directly responsible to the Council. He stated it was not possible that the Council members cover everything. Mayor Probst statcd there were mechanisms in place now that might move things along very quickly. Hc stated therc would be countless hours involved in planning meetings and attending meetings. Hc stated the rest of Arden Hills would not be abandoncdjust to move TCAAP along, but his personal experiencc was that this was going to take an incredible amount of time, and reducing the City Administrator's supervisory responsibilities would allow him to dedicate more timc to the issues coming up.