2018-11-14 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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The administrative staff is currently unable to work effectively because of continual interruptions and staff absences. The City Clerk and Accounting Tech are required to answer phones and deal with counter traffic from people who personally visit City Hall. The employees are both senior level with significant leave accruals. When one is gone, the other is required to be present. This results in many days of only one administrative person in the office. There are then conflicts with simultaneous phone and in person visits needing attention, bathroom and lunch breaks. The regular interruptions don't allow for the extended concentration that many of their duties require. Adding a part-time administrative employee will help alleviate these issues. Given the demographic makeup of current city employees, it looks likely that there could be several retirements in the next 10-12 years. Hiring new employees at this time and getting them fully trained in and effective at their duties will help ease the succession process as employees move on in their job progression. Development Pressure There are a total of 77 single family homes that have been approved for Preliminary Plat. We anticipate a build-out of those lots over the course of the next 4 years, resulting in approximately 20 new home building permits per year without any other development taking place. The Planning Commission has also entertained concept plans for an additional 30 homes on the city-owned Block 7 property and we are aware of at least two other developers who are interested in the site as well. Staff has met with two other parties each interested in small redevelopment projects that would result in 5 new homes each. We have been approached with serious interest in the 2.3-acre site on Commerce Drive for a new building and business, similar to Ruffridge Johnson and are aware that Mr. Rehbein is actively marketing his sites on Fairview Street for industrial buildings. Certainly, all of these potential projects will not come to fruition in the next few years, but it is hard to image that none of them will. The city has not developed a new residential lot in the last ten years (since 2007) and has had just one build-out of a new commercial building (Ruffridge Johnson) in that time frame. Development pressure is a major factor in the workload of city staff as we work through applications, public hearings, providing guidance to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and interacting with developers, consultants, attorneys, and neighbors of the development. Then, once we are through the approvals process, our public works and building inspection staff is tasked with monitoring the actual construction activities. With the analysis above, we observe the need for the additional staff recommended in the 2019 budget to accommodate the increased workload related to development and redevelopment pressure. While we cannot predict how long that trend will last, it seems certain that those pressures will be here for at least the next three to five years. SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS While the increased workload due to development pressure is felt throughout our entire staff, the work that these tasks supplant is markedly different between office and Public Works tasks. Below is a list of items which are being affected, to various degrees, by the 3