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handled before the Council decided in the 1980's to make that position a <br />full-time city position.) <br />4. Personally, I take issue with the notion that the most appropriate time to <br />address positions is when someone leaves. Don't wait to improve. I <br />believe all of us - elected officials and appointed - owe our first duty to <br />our citizens and not to individual city employees. In other words, if you <br />or I felt the citizens of Roseville would be better served by a different <br />organization structure that results in employees performing different <br />duties and receiving different pay, then I believe we ought to make that <br />change for the good of the city even if it has an adverse effect on certain <br />city employees. City employees serve the city, not the other way around. <br />_�. But with respect to the Community Development Department, we did <br />make substantial changes to that Department just last Fall during our <br />annual budget process. During that budget process Staff presented and <br />the Council agreed as follows: elimination of a Department Assistant <br />position in the Community Development Department (which the Council <br />agreed to though there was an employee in that position) and the down- <br />sizing of the ��� and Economic Development Director positions to more <br />entry-level positions with reduced responsibilities, authority, and pay. <br />The net result was budget savings AND approximately the same level of <br />service assuming we could hire good people (done) and provide them <br />with good supervision (atissue). No one suggested then that we should <br />consider changing the Community Development Manager's duties and <br />responsibilities. If you thought such changes were appropriate that would <br />have been the ideal time for Councilmembers to discuss even more wide- <br />ranging changes to that Department, especially if the idea were to create a <br />combined ACM-Community Development Manager. No one would have <br />lost his position from that idea. <br />6. Moreover, there is no indication of what a Council "policy review" now of <br />the Community Development Manager position would entail and how <br />long it would take. The Council probably doesn't need reminding that it <br />sometimes takes the Council many meetings over many, many months to <br />conduct policy reviews of issues such as dangerous animals, bees and <br />chickens, Council's own rules of operating procedure, the James Addition <br />access, no parking signs, Fire Department response to accidents with <br />injuries, etc. etc. This underscores my concern about an indefinite freeze <br />on filling this significant position. <br />7. Finally, a small quibble with the assertion in Councilmember Ihlan's <br />memo that a city manager needs council permission to fill existing, <br />already-established city positions. I think that is incorrect. Once Council <br />2 <br />