Council Minutes

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Monday, March 25, 2002 - 7:00 p.m.

The city council met at the Committee of the Whole on Monday, March 25, 2002 following the special city council meeting in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Brooks, Bjerke, Stevens, Hamerlik, Burke (teleconference), Glassheim (teleconference), Gershman, Christensen, Klave, Kerian, Bakken, Kreun, Martinson - 13; absent: Council Member Lunak - 1.

Mayor Brown announced that when addressing the committee to please come forward to use the microphone for the record, and advised that the meeting is being televised live and taped for later broadcast.

2.1 Non-classified positions.
Rick Duquette, administrative coordinator, reported that in September of 2001 they were tasked to examine 136 non-classified positions within the city, that it was determined to classify 11 of those positions, 35 positions retained as seasonal (people working less than 950 hours per year and do not receive benefits), 24 positions were made into grant or project related positions, 39 positions were eliminated and the council tasked him to review the balance of 27 positions with the department heads and report back in March of 2002. He stated that recommendations are attached to the staff report as follows: that we classify 14 positions (12.5 full time equiv. positions and also a change from trade inspector to a building inspector at a grade 18). He stated the anticipated additional cost to the City to classify these positions is $23,043.94 and are recommending that one position be considered for grant-related position (in Public Info - a contract employee half-time with ensuing cost of $1,190.19) and that some of the recommendations for that position include working with the events coordinator function, working with the CVBC as well as several other projects).

He stated he is recommending that 12 positions listed be eliminated, 4 of the positions (Family Assessment Worker-Health) have already been moved into other functions through the County WIC Program and these positions will be eliminated in the 2003 budget eff. 1/01/03 and indicated cost of that, $310,760.52. (Savings of $310,760.52 less $24,234.14 = approx. $286,500)

Council Member Hamerlik questioned the elimination of Equip. Op. (non-classified staff), streets in the summer can be missed and get by but in the wintertime with snow, and if this will have any impact on snow removal during the winter; Mr. Duquette stated he hoped not, that if have substantial snowstorm its going to be impacted, but working with the department head, the review is that services will be maintained at the present level with this staffing. Council Member Hamerlik also noted that if change in staff where health insurance is listed as zero, and new employees required full health insurance, could change or almost double it. Mr. Duquette stated they could use $4,500 as potential figure or $20,000 additional.

Council Member Stevens asked if the employees would have to go through the exam process and re-interview. Mr. Duquette stated they would do the same process they went through for classifying
the previous positions last year - these positions are opened up to internal candidates and support
and recommend that process for these positions.

Council Member Kreun stated the one-half time contract position would be involved in administering or overseeing certain grants and special projects, and if that person would be available or contract on the other half to be a grant writer and might be a combination they might want to look at.
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Council Member Bjerke asked where the money is coming from to pay for this half-time person (out of the General Fund) and is not a grant position; and why contract rather than classified. Mr. Duquette stated he is not prepared to classify as fulltime position but that there are some projects and functions that we want to look at doing for the Public Info. Office and are better handled with the flexibility of a contracted position; and contracts would be reviewed on an annual basis. He stated the Public Info. Office is in an evolving function and still not sure where we want some of our functions or services to go.

Council Member Brooks questioned system used in determining which positions should stay; Mr. Duquette stated there was an analysis by himself and the department heads of their current service level and whether they could still continue to provide that service with this staffing.

Council Member Brooks questioned if there would be a budget amendment coming to council for a reduction in the budget by the amount of the savings (the net change). Mr. Duquette stated the positions won't be eliminated until December 31, 2002; and they will bring to council a 2003 budget approx. $290,000 less in staffing costs for these positions.

Don Shields, Health Department, stated that the Health Families Program was one that was in a cooperative arrangement with Lutheran Social Services and also Northeast, was a test program, and have been looking to see what is the right fit in the community for that, and in going through the process thought that a better fit is Valley Health and WIC and in the January timeframe their board met and those 4 positions were moved over to Valley Health and WIC on February 28.

Mr. Duquette stated the eliminated positions will work through December 31, 2002 and as they classify the other 12.5 positions, these employees will have an opportunity as an internal candidate to apply for one of these positions as long as they qualify. He stated they want to get those positions advertised for and have a process before the end of the year when the employees in the eliminated positions are still employed with the City and which would qualify them as internal candidates.

Council Member Christensen stated re. the part-time grant/project related position, he would hope they would reconsider that being a contract position and make it a non-classified position - that they did a lot of work to have classified and non-classified, and contracts for department heads, and wouldn't like to see them disregard it and go with a contract. Mr. Swanson stated he would want to go back and review it, but thinks the way they ended up drafting or adopting the non-classified employees is that that no longer is a feasible option because you have limited the number of days that they can be hired, and if this is intended to be a position for the entire year, doesn't think a non-classified position is available to you and you would have to go to a contract, that he will review and give report later.

Council Member Burke asked before they vote on this next week for information showing which funds each of these positions are funded from - ones for retention and ones recommended for elimination. Mr. Duquette stated he would get info.

Council Member Burke stated with regard to the positions recommended for elimination, other than they are funded in this budget year, is there a reason to keep them through the end of the year if made determination that they can be eliminated. Mr. Duquette stated he would recommend that they do that for implementation sense, wants to get the department prepared to fill in for those staff members or make transition, and from service standpoint would like to keep them through the end of the year. Council Member Burke stated if service issue this year, won't it be service issue next
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year when eliminated; Mr. Duquette stated probably not but should give these people a good head start on what's happening to them. Council Member Burke stated if administrators have made determination that these positions be eliminated, should move forward with the elimination in a timely way that's fair to the employee but no need to spend the money just because its in the budget right now. Mr. Duquette stated he disagreed with that and would like to continue forward with these positions for the next 9 months but will work with the council and take their recommenda-tions on that. Council Member Burke stated next week when this comes for vote, he will make a motion or amendment to have the eliminations moved up, probably by several months.

Council Member Hamerlik asked if any of the individuals should secure employment within the city or elsewhere, would the positions be filled or left vacant. Mr. Duquette stated they wouldn't be advertising for the classified positions until the last part of the year, September or October, and classified positions would not be filled until the 1st of January, 2003, and that his recommendation would be that they fill the position for the balance of the year. Council Member Burke asked why - Mr. Duquette stated he would work with the department heads to make sure they were doing what meets the service needs, but our plan is to keep those positions functioning throughout the balance of this year and transition them out at the end of 2002. He stated it wasn't right to give a blanket yes/no unless they do some analysis, but at this point based upon the existing service levels and their plan to transition that, would say he would probably fill those. Council Member Burke stated that would be counterproductive both in terms of experience of the people that would fill it and the fact that you would be spending money on recruiting and hiring people who would then be let go in a matter of weeks or months. Mr. Duquette stated that was a good argument.

Council Member Christensen stated definition of non-classified is in Sec. 6-0101(39) and non-classified employee means "an employee employed in a non-classified position" is defined in 6-0103 and the portion that the city attorney was speaking to had to do with temporary appointments, and was a 90-day or 180-day situation, and if they want to go non-classified so they stay consistent. Council Member Hamerlik stated he preferred the contract position.

2.2 Approval of award of contract to Public Sector Personnel Consultant's to conduct wage and salary study.____________________________________________________________________
Daryl Hovland, interim human resources director, stated when they submitted the RFQ to the council it was directed that they do a wage and salary survey, and also directed that they have $40,000 in their budget to apply to this study; that the wage committee has selected Public Sector Personnel Consultants and brought back to council as approving authority of the contract, submitted copy of contract, and summary of services that the City will receive.

2.3 Initiate the process to increase the 911 fee for hard-line and cell phones from the current $0.50
(50 cents) to a total of $1.00 (one dollar)._____________________________________________
Allan Morken, director of 911 Center, stated he worked on the process of making sure they continue to get the funds into the 911 Center from the hard-line, and on getting the information put together for the 50 cents to be added to the cell fees, during the review of what other counties in the State of North Dakota were doing, and working with Russ Lindbloom it was determined that Grand Forks County is only one of 5 that has a 50 cent fee. He stated with Phase II equipment and Phase I equipment and the new technology, he brought this through the 911 Authority Board in January and they requested that he start the process of getting on the November ballot to have the 911 fee increased from 50-cents to $1.00 for the entire County of Grand Forks; that in order to do this when it was set up initially the City voted and the County also voted on the same issue but separately, and is now coming before the city council with two options - that they would allow one
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vote which would include the city of Grand Forks and Grand Forks county for the increase and then determine by the voters of Grand Forks County whether or not they wanted to increase the fee to $1.00; this would also make sure since it included both the city and the county that they would not have one entity that would pass it and the other entity that wouldn't pass and would have two sets of fees; and requesting from the council direction as to which way they would like to proceed with this to bring it up to a vote of the people.

There was some discussion as to whether this was an advisory or a binding vote - and it was stated that if the council approved holding one vote in the county, then the County Board could make sure that it got on the ballot. Mr. Morken stated he wanted to approach the city council first before he talked to the county board re. this.

Council Member Bjerke stated they just started the 50-cents on the cell phone less than six months ago and that amount was supposed to be enough money to continue for some time and now looking to increase this fee - would like to see some justification of what that would be used for and pre-sented the following questions: 1) how much is collected monthly on the hard-line; 2) amount collected for the cell phone monthly; 3) would like to see budget for 911, what County pays, what UND pays and what does 50-cents add up to, and asked if General Fund money is used for this (the city auditor stated money goes into PSAP - no general fund money goes to E-911); and if double these fees where money would be used. He stated for years it has been discussed by the police building re. overcrowding and if going to do something then should address one of the real issues which is space issue and if money is to be used to construct a building to house it, would like to see a solution - citizens have a right to see a detailed well thought out plan of what do with the money before requesting it.

Mr. Swanson advised that the ballot is written to determine whether or not the vote would approve an increase of 50-cents; if the majority of voters did not pass that, it would not go into effect, but you do not jeopardize any collections you presently have.

Council Member Martinson asked Mr. Morken to explain the need for this money, that approx. $300,000 to convert the system to pick up the cell phone calls; Mr. Morken stated that Russ Lindbloom is actually the coordinator in the State of ND for the cell phones and the trunking systems and some of the equipment, it is going to depend partially that if PSAP is going to remain where its at and the equipment is simply up-graded or if PSAP ends up moving to a different location and start from the bottom - that if they move to a new location, it is extremely important the way technology is changing and going forward, they make sure that they build on a very solid base - that will cost a fair amount of money, and wanted to get started early so that as the year progresses they can get more information out to the public. He stated that the problem with cell phones is that when the 911 Center and equipment was first put in place, everybody had hard line phones, now almost everybody has cell phones and at the present time the technology isn't there to pinpoint the location, exact longitude and latitude of where that call is coming from.

Council Member Christensen stated that in June, 2001 they passed an ordinance that gives us an excise tax of 50-cents per month per phone or phone line cell phone, and asked what fees were prior to passing that; Mr. Morken stated before that time there was no fee on cell phones, this fee was set up to start in January but because of the billing and time with the cell companies, there is some
backdrop in it. He stated that if the council allowed this to go to a vote of the people, it would simply be increased by 50-cents. Council Member Christensen asked if they were collecting this money on cell phones now; Mr. Morken stated the County Treasurer has collected some money, not
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from all the cell phone companies and is working at the present time with Russ Lindbloom to make sure that we get the right amount of money collected. Council Member Christensen asked when they would have that information available - by May 1 which would be 5 months of collections, and would like to have an idea of how much additional revenue this would generate before we decide to put it to a vote. Mr. Morken stated in the State of ND they estimate that about 30% of what you collect on 911 hard lines is the amount that you take in on cell phones; that they take in about $180,000/year on hard-line phones between the city and the county; Council Member Christensen stated when looking at our budget for 2002 our total revenue is $480,000 without this collection and if increase would add another $60,000 to it and have cash carryover of $270,000 and will have about $500,000 to buy the equipment within 18 months, and not sure that the need is there yet.

2.4 Authorization to be a participant in the FY2003 North Dakota Interstate Security and Safety
Project application._______________________________________________________________
Earl Haugen, Grand Forks/East Grand Forks MPO, stated this is the ND Security and Safety project (former ITS Project that is in the CIP at $1.8 million with funding coming from the Interstate Program at a cost ratio of 90% federal, 10% state, 0% local) and have been informed that funding source is not available to fund that project and the other I-29 district still wants to pursue deploying these type of systems and convinced their central office to go after an ear-mark request to bring in some additional funds into the State other than utilizing our regular con-struction dollars; the new funding request for the Grand Forks area would be $2 million and majority of that is still project on the state system but as in your old project there were two signs identified that were on the city-system on Columbia Road and with the funding ratio being changed
from 90-10-0% to some other form (possibly 80-10-10%) and asking that you also contribute up to $75,000 set-aside for the next budget and once the ear-mark is known and we are successful in getting any amount, there will be a need for the City and the State District Office to work out a scope of work and work out the details, and it will come back to council one additional time to make sure that we all understand what the scope is and what the costs are for the City.

Council Member Brooks questioned where the $75,000 would come from; the city auditor stated they would be looking at Highway Users funds as a match.

Council Member Kreun stated that it indicates on one of the findings and analysis that this does not commit us to a specific dollar amount - up to $75,000 but doesn't commit us to anything until we actually have the project in hand; Mr. Haugen stated we probably won't know the '03 federal fiscal budget until September, but wasn't known until December last year, what amount if any was available and might need to set aside for '03 but not committed to a dollar amount.

Council Member Bjerke asked re. the signs, whether programmable signs that display messages; Mr. Haugen stated that is the primary thing that a traveler will see. Council Member Bjerke questioned placing two on either side of the DeMers overpass, has never seen heavy traffic that would justify putting signs at some of these locations, have responsibility not only to our citizens but to federal government on how we spend money - and that he isn't in favor of surveillance cameras watching people drive down the road, and if do this, we are committing ourselves to forming a traffic operations communications center with a budget of $50,000/yr to maintain - if put cameras up who are we paying to watch these cameras, that the traffic operations communications center is state operated. Mr. Haugen stated that most of the components will be for the State and they will
have staff to man the system and State would be liable for costs, and that is part of the final scope in working out the operation and maintenance of the system depending on what's on the local system vs. the State system, etc. - can't say there won't be no City costs but won't be 100%.
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2.5 Advanced funding for Corps Flood Protection Project.
Council Member Bjerke questioned source of the $5 million; the city auditor stated if they went to the $5 million, they are sharing those costs 55-45% with the State and our local funding share would be about $2.75 million, that in reviewing the bond sales we have made in order to do land easements and rights of way purchases we have enough money already sold in bonds to cover that $2.75 million without having to do an advance bond sales, have that in place. Council Member Bjerke questioned if it would speed up when the next two dike special assessments occur or depending on how much we take, if didn't take the full $2.75 million. The city auditor stated they wouldn't have to based on this dollar amount, depending on how future years go and what recommendations there may be from the Corps, could potentially have a partial increase in a dike assessment from what originally anticipated for the coming year, and with timing of other bond sales, it is still our intent not to have to do the final dike assessment until 2004. The city auditor stated to keep in mind that we are anticipating another dike assessment but it should not increase.

Council Member Brooks stated in up fronting the $5 million, what is worst-case scenario. Mark Walker, asst. city engineer, stated worst case scenario is that federal appropriations that have already been allocated to this project, would not come to the City and that there would not be federal funds to finish the project. Mr. Walker stated there are many more benefits than disadvantages.

Council Member Hamerlik stated the report says that approx. $3 to $5 million advance funding from each city, and advance funding - that he heard over media that extra $5 million, asked for comment on that and what is amount for each city. Mr. Walker stated that recognizing that the City has to give the Corps local monies as a part of their share of the project as it progresses, there are going to be some monies due from the cities for 2003 work, what they are proposing to do is take those monies that they would need to give the Corps in 2003 and give them to the Corps a year in advance so they can use it in 2002 getting more construction done, and number of advantages for doing that - it isn't additional funding, but merely giving the funds to the Corps early.

Council Member Gershman stated there is another aspect to this that is important, that at the end of the fiscal year there are projects in the entire U.S. that have slippage (there is money that projects have not been able to be completed) and we think that the City of Grand Forks by advancing this money puts us in a good position with the federal government and with the Army Corps to go in and make a strong case to pick the slippage money from other projects that have not been able to be completed and this should work in our favor. There is a lot of competition for the slippage money but this should give us some advantage.

Council Member Kreun stated that this is not going to be any additional monies but the advance would not be more than the original amount that was designated for our share of the dike system, just moving it up rather than adding to it

2.6 Consideration of bids for construction of City Project No. 5290, 2002 Asphalt Street Repairs.
There were no comments.

2.7 Consideration of bids for City Project No's. 5331, District No. 136 and 5333, District No. 138,
2002 residential street lighting (Mighty Acres Drive and Nordonna Circle)._______________
There were no comments.

2.8 Mosquito control bids recommendations.
Committee of the Whole - March 25, 2002 - Page 7

Council Member Gershman stated he didn't think it was necessary to get so much technical data about herbicides and chemicals, and questioned how much data we needed on it - just paper we could have saved.

Don Shields, health department, stated this is a bid for a particular quantity of materials, don't know what the total order will be but total mosquito control budget is $135,000 for chemicals for 2002 and that depends upon how wet a year we have; he noted they did not receive any bids for the used vehicles that they lease over the summer and are asking as part of the recommendation that they have permission to negotiate directly with a number of vendors to lease them at the same rate that they leased them last year ($450/mo. for used truck to put the ULV larvicide/adultacide machines on). He stated the second bid is for the chemicals and the third bid is for the ATV's, which they also lease for the summer. Council Member Hamerlik asked if the vehicle leasing is paid for from the monthly assessment on the utility bills; it is.

Council Member Kreun stated there are several large properties in the area that are private and are charged on their utility bills for this, and asked if they go into these complex areas where they have their own private streets and spray those. Mr. Shields stated there is a drift factor associated with the chemicals and how far it carries. Todd Hanson, mosquito control supervisor, stated they go into private areas and spray.

Council Member Klave asked how many months vehicles are in service and if it makes most sense to be leasing these vehicles rather than purchasing. Mr. Hanson stated very much so - some high maintenance vehicles and expense.

2.9 Extension of the Phase IV/IA Flood Response Rental Program.
Council Member Christensen stated he received a call re. letter that was sent out to individuals that they have to move out. Terry Hanson, Urban Development, stated that what people are responding to is after the action last November letters were sent out notifying them of that action, that their office has also received phone calls and if haven't already will be contacting them after action on this item and telling them of our intention to bring this forward and ask for an extension of the deadline for the ending of this program so people have a chance to live in the homes until they become available for sale. He stated that the final dike alignment will be set in these areas by late summer or fall, and at that time it is the intent to subdivide these lots in one action rather than bringing individual parcels forward and then available for sale. Council Member Christensen asked if people living in homes where the City bought them and now people renting them back, did they get right of first refusal when buildings are sold. Mr. Hanson stated that the original owners have right of first refusal. Mr. Hanson stated that the minimum for remaining in these houses is 6 months up to a year, and if this passes they will continue this program (rental of these units) until they have all the property ready to go, which he doesn't believe will happen until the end of this year; that before next Monday he will discuss this with engineering, city attorney's office and have estimated time in the homes.

Council Member Christensen asked if any of the houses listed in status report will be put up for
sale this summer and if so, listed with a realtor. Mr. Hanson stated they have no houses on the listing that will go up for sale until the dike line is set, lots subdivided and the action will take place at one time. Council Member Christensen stated he would like to have some of these listed because will have some expenses coming up and just had $5 million question and if could generate half million. Mr. Hanson stated they have a number of lots that the City owns that are not anywhere close to the dike line, a number of lots have designated for in-fill housing program that they
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currently have under RFP, the majority of the lots that the City owns are within the 100-year flood plain and it has been the decision of the previous council not to put those lots up for sale until they are taken out of the floodplain. He stated it was their feeling that the value of the lots will not be there until the dike is in; that you cannot build in the 100-year floodplain without building a flood-proof building. Council Member Christensen stated that whatever they can get on the market this spring would really appreciate so they have some cash to cover some of the issues that have been coming up.

Council Member Gershman questioned where it states "partial take, to be sold when replat is complete", if the replat is waiting until the determination of the dike line; Mr. Hanson stated yes. Council Member Gershman asked when the quickest is that can happen, existing houses are selling in the floodplain now; Mr. Hanson stated that the problem with these is that they are going to be missing a portion of their backyard and don't know how close and don't want to go in and start taking one lot at a time and replatting it but want to wait until the dike is finally set and then replat the entire line of the easement. Council Member Gershman stated it would be helpful if he (Mr. Hanson) could get together with Mr. Grasser so council could get sense of when replats would be
done - would be great help to understand because have some people in his ward that are very concerned about some homes, one vacant, and people like homes to be sold so they have a permanent neighborhood but they really would like to know when that would happen, and asked for a report on that.

Council Member Klave asked about lots that are in the 100-year floodplain and vacant lots, department could establish a price for those lots and if the lots were sold, the buyer can either speculate that's the lot he would want, or can build on it if wants to build flood proof, but would be their option - and if sells it does, and if not it doesn't - if want to wait until after the flood map is redrawn but maybe somebody wants to speculate on a certain lot and willing to pay taxes and sit on it for two or three years before they build.

2.10 2002 Beautification applications.
Council Member Hamerlik asked if there were any other beautification projects or monies they have that might be spent for beautification other than what they have allocated, $77,000 that the committee acted on and their recommendation. Mr. Hanson stated all the applications are listed that the committee acted upon; and stated there is some carryover money where projects have not been done ($13,000) - project will be done this year. Council Member Hamerlik stated that 2 years ago there was discussion about a project where some citizens thought that we should have or consider several monuments throughout the city relative to the flood - that a year ago Mr. Hanson promised that it would be back on the beautification list the following year, that it is not included and if there is some other money or being done somewhere else or other program - these are historian type people who questioned this and that strategically placed in the city, it is some-
thing for the future about the past - that he was disappointed that another year has gone by and it isn't there. Mr. Hanson apologized for not including them this year, and perhaps next year..and that there is going to be a substantial monument put in place in the very near future. Council Member Stevens stated he is on the committee for the Lincoln Park Neighborhood and
they are planning to build a monument in Lincoln Park concerning the flood. The city auditor made a point of clarification - under the background it states that the Beautification program has been allocated 1 mill from the general fund - actually it is the equivalent of basically 1 mill at $77,000, but that comes from the sales tax infrastructure dollars - not from the general fund.


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2.11 Close public comments period and hold public hearing on 2001 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER).____________________________________
There were no comments.

2.12 Mayor appointment to the Housing Authority Board.
Mr. Swanson stated he has previously advised the council and the mayor that the appointments to the Housing Authority Board is an appointment by the mayor and does not require any action or confirmation by the city council, and advised the mayor that would be considered information only.

Council Member Hamerlik stated this is a great appointment, however, they have talked about "new blood" in government and one of his concerns is when a Board takes it upon themselves to recommend (perhaps by Code they are supposed to and by tradition they do it) the appointment of an individual, esp. if a reappointment, how can they get new people into it -last week had some people that were recommended by their sponsoring group and it continues reappointment, reappointment, etc. because they usually don't go against their members and would like for council to look at the appointment procedure - maybe a part of it where the group itself and how they nominate or should they nominate for their own members. Mayor Brown stated another fact would be to limit terms if want "new blood" in their bylaws. Mayor Brown stated he would work with staff to publish the upcoming vacancies so have more input.

ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR COMMENTS

Rick Duquette, administrative coordinator, reported on status of the Human Resources director and the Urban Development director positions - that the HR director went through an initial application process and ended up with 2 applicants left over from initial 9 and wanted to bring in at least 6 applicants for an assessment process and it was decided by the selection committee and recommended to the mayor that they readvertise, and that the starting pay for the position was increased and advertised (from $55,000 to the $64,000) which is within their authority to do that, they received 109 applications, UND helped with initial screening and down to 26 applicants, that the selection committee meets on March 26 and anticipate having a series of 3 names to the mayor in 4 to 5 weeks for that position. The urban development director closed on March 18, had 23 applicants for that position, applications have not been screened and will be putting a committee together to do that and anticipating 6 to 8 weeks for that position.

Council Member Hamerlik asked if these positions were civil service or contract; Mr. Duquette stated it was determined to hire the HR director as a civil service position and was recommendation to the mayor from administration and the Urban Development director position is intended to be a contract position; that the recommendation for the HR director to be civil service position was
based upon the duties of the HR director, he's codified in civil service code, secretary to the civil service commission and felt it was important to maintain that sense of civil service with the HR director. Council Member Hamerlik asked if the council hasn't acted on all top staff positions at one time and said they would all be contract. Mayor Brown stated that not what Mr. Swanson is
aware of. Council Member Klave stated they didn't pass anything that says they are going to be but were encouraging to look at that and doing on a case by case basis as each became available.

Council Member Christensen asked if they have prepared a job description that was advertised and asked for copy or E-mail it to him tomorrow as he is very concerned that the issues of the economic development aspects of the Urban Development office be addressed and that there may
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be a problem with EDC and Urban Development Office because we have two different places that people who are looking for economic development assistance come to, and hoping to focus on the centralization of that.

Mr. Duquette reported on the overtime report contained in the report and some of the tools using to do our best to control those costs, the Mayor has issued a directive to the departments regarding the calculation of overtime. There has been some confusion and different way of doing things in different departments as far as calculating overtime, the Mayor's directive standardizes that and it's mentioned in your staff report and that they have asked that paid time off such as vacation, sick leave, paid administrative leave not be used in the calculation of overtime; that by standardizing the calculation and basing the calculation upon a normal work period will help us get a control on the cost. He asked how do they control costs, old fashioned way make it a priority and trust staff and managers to carry the priorities of the mayor and his forward to look very carefully at those overtime costs, to do their best to make sure that overtime is needed in given circumstance and to make sure that the calculation of it is done correctly - establish a priority and work to obtain that and is very comfortable in the ability of department heads and staff, etc. to accomplish that and
what he is looking for is trends - there maybe a given year where have hostage situation or extraordinary fire but to look at long term trends on the costs and those will be things he will be monitoring as well as working with their managers on monitoring or controlling the costs.

Council Member Bjerke questioned the number of events at the Alerus or Engelstad, that they will be tracking the costs of the overtime and imperative of the City every year for yearly report, that the citizens of Grand Forks know how much money in overtime the police and street departments are putting in mainly to take care of the Alerus and figure should be included in report because it is cost that the City incurs, that the police department last year was increased in overtime by about a third over the average, possibly not all because of the event centers but is obviously a factor. If the Alerus is only going to pay for 4 police officers to be inside for crowd control and police department thinks it needs to have 8, then citizens are paying for 4 and that doesn't count the off-site people directing traffic, etc. and hopes the City does an accurate job of accounting to the citizens who really know what the actual subsidy is and how much money the police department is spending to provide the needed security and traffic control and when it comes time to look at the police department's budget that needs to be accounted for.

Council Member Gershman stated they are attempting to bring down from 4.4% of the total budget to about 3.5 or 3.4% and asked what the target number is. Mr. Duquette stated they are averaging 4.4% year in overtime costs and that is approx. $800,000, our total payroll is approx. $21 million (grants included) and 1% of that is $210,000 - $240,000 and that's where he would like to be.

Council Member Hamerlik stated departments were using the same methodology and different systems that might have, fire department and police department, and your idea is to take out some things that are really not overtime, but holiday pay might be overtime, so that all doing about the same according to the same system.

Council Member Bakken stated that in some instances that overtime is cheaper than the alternative and that's why have some overtime costs; Mr. Duquette stated that is correct and sometimes better to spend a little overtime than to hire additional staff; and their initiative on this part is to standardize the calculation and will see some cost savings with that.

Committee of the Whole - March 25, 2002 - Page 11

MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

(Note: Council Members Burke and Glassheim were no longer on teleconference system)

1) Council Member Gershman stated when get into springtime construction with the dike, the citizens of the city who live in the corridors where the trucks are going to be working would appreciate very much some additional cleaning of their streets rather than once a week to try to keep the mud off and hold the dust down and they would be very appreciative. He thanked the mayor for his comments earlier tonight in defense of the process for the city and the integrity of the people involved.

2) Council Member Hamerlik noted in the council agenda notice that the deadline for filing for election was incorrect - deadline is Friday, April 12 at 4:00 p.m.; that he would like to have the matter of the Starlites letter on Monday's agenda, that should be a permanent part of our minutes so we can receive and file that communication. He stated whoever is responsible for re-drafting the ward that he called attention to Ward 7, first map put out in February had two wards listed as 7-3 and that has now been corrected to 7-3 and 7-4.

3) Council Member Bjerke stated that on the April 8 committee of the whole he will be bring forth a code of ethics for the city council, there is no staff time involved and thanked Mr. Swanson for sending him the information, that he will bring some information and council will have a decision on how they want to vote on code of ethics, conflict of interest - that city employees have a code of ethics in the City Code but elected officials do not.

4) Council Member Martinson stated that Fine Print (Joanne and Don Kuntz) was selected as business person of the year, that he viewed their plant again and that what they are doing is amazing. He stated that when they had their grand opening there were only 2 council people that attended, that leaders and council in this community must start visiting grand openings of new businesses, grand re-openings because it shows them that we care, and we should care.

5) Council Member Martinson stated that they talked about the west corridor coming into our city, need to fast track that, and we need to do something and need to do it soon.