2024-12-05 City Council WS & CC Minutes - Approved

Home Browse Search

City of Centerville City Council Work Session & Meeting Minutes December 5, 2024 residents. Mr. Wilharber reminisced with Council and Mr. Palzer regarding his hiring in 1994 and other achievements throughout Mr. Palzer’s career. IV. APPOINTMENTS & PRESENTATIONS 1. Proclamation Recognizing the Service of Public Works Director Palzer Mayor Love read the revised Proclamation contained in Council’s packet. Administrator Statz provided Council with numerous highlights of Mr. Palzer’s 30+ year career with the City stating that Mr. Palzer was the unofficial emergency response or backup person for the City of Hugo in the mid 90’s for several years as they only had one Public Works Staff member; served as the city’s emergency representative to Anoka County, FEMA and the BCA; spearheaded the environmentally friendly practices, and Centerville became the first of surrounding cities to implement a salt reduction program utilizing the use of salt-brine roadway treatment and followed up with creating a consortium with the communities of Lino Lakes, Hugo, Circle Pines and Lexington to receive a grant to purchase equipment for these communities to start their salt brine programs; a founding member of the Anoka County well-head protection group and surrounding cities’ backup Building Inspector group; volunteered for the Minnesota Building Officials Emergency Response Team until 2023; in 1994 Paul was the 1,573 Minnesota Certified Building Official and was th currently the 24 longest licensed code official in the state; served as the City of Lexington’s Building Official for two years; achieved many certificates of expertise in building inspections including the ICC’s Certified Building Inspector, Certified Building Inspector Plans Examiner, Certified Building Official and most prominently a Building Code Specialist (highest combination certificate of any Building Official in the State. He stated that Mr. Palzer had coached four inspectors over the years with three of them having become Designated Building Officials for Minnesota cities. Administrator Statz also stated that Mr. Palzer holds a Minnesota Class D Water and Wastewater License and has mentored eight staff members in receiving their licenses over the years. He stated that Mr. Palzer also created a pond inventory program for over 100 ponds in the community and represented the city through varies groups (Anoka County Wellhead, Highway, Parks & Emergency Service Groups, MNWarn, RCWD, MDH, MPCA, AWWA, MRWA, ICC, MCES, Waterisac, MECA, MS4, DOLI, EPA, DOT, OSHA, MNDOT, DNR and MN Duty Officer. He reported that Mr. Palzer has been on call 24/7 for 30 years, 8 months and five days as of December 27, 2024. Administrator Statz provided Council with Mr. Palzer’s most memorable moments and challenges (water tower freezing, two watermain breaks which emptied the water tower due to contractors, many power outages, two storms damaging every building in town, underground lightning putting a hole thru the city’s well pump on a clear afternoon, Y2K, 9/11, 2008 economic crash, staff reductions, lift station 3 flooding, the installation of a new watertower, overseeing the inspection of more than 800 new buildings and 40 subdivision/infrastructure project with the population growth from 1,750 to 4,000 throughout his career). Mr. Palzer thanked Council for the opportunity to serve the city, stated that he could not have had the career that he did without the dedication of his staff and stated that the city would be in good hands with the current Public Works staff that was on board. IV. PUBLIC HEARING 1. None. VI. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Page 3 of 9