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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04.06.04 Work Session Minutes Council Workshop Council Expectations of City Administrator April 6, 2004 Minutes Mayor Ristow called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Present: Also Present: Ristow, Cordes, Fitch, Fogarty, Soderberg David Urbia, City Administrator; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Michelle Leonard, Aaron Tinklenberg Audience: City Administrator Urbia and Council agreed to continue with the current Appraisal of Performance. City Administrator Urbia asked Council what they would like to see accomplished within one year so they could say it has been a good year. It would give him a sense of priorities so Council and staff can work together to focus energy on those priorities. Mayor Ristow asked how Council felt about having a goal setting retreat. Councilmember Fogarty felt a retreat should be held as soon as possible. Councilmember Cordes only had open May 8 if it is held on a Saturday. Mayor Ristow stated the retreats have been for 5-6 hours. Councilmember Fogarty felt it should be a two-day retreat. Last year did not allow enough time to discuss everything. Council agreed to bring in a facilitator, Mr. Don Salverda. City Administrator Urbia will contact him to see when he is available. City Administrator Urbia asked Council if they prefer to be contacted bye-mail or by phone. Councilmember Fogarty enjoyed receiving the Friday Faxes bye-mail. She felt he has done a good job with communicating bye-mail. If an immediate answer is needed to communicate by phone is fine. Councilmember Soderberg does not check his e-mail that often. If a response is not received to an e-mail, City Administrator Urbia should call him. It would also be good to call him if an e-mail has been sent. Councilmember Fitch stated to e-mail him at work is ok, but it should also be copied to the city e-mail. Councilmember Cordes was ok with receiving e- mails. Council would like to continue receiving phone calls regarding the agenda. It is not necessary to call on off-weeks. Councilmember Soderberg stated he expected City Administrator Urbia to make decisions on day-to-day operations. If it has to do with policy, Council should be contacted. Issuance of MUSA City Administrator Urbia has been attending the meetings, however, Community Development has been handling this issue. Councilmember Fogarty stated the committee has taken a strong hold on what should be done. It is good for staffto just take in comments. City Administrator Urbia should continue to keep on top of the issue, but let the committee make decisions. He has been attending the meetings as he felt this was the quickest way for him to become informed and ~ *e y~~~ C~d )~~~6>". Council Workshop April 6, 2004 Page 2 to meet people. Councilmember Cordes agreed that is a good meeting to go to to become familiar with Farmington. However, he should not spread himselftoo thin. Equipment Replacement Equipment is replaced according to the number of years it has been in use. Staff should continue the same process. Strategic Planning Regarding Staffing Levels City Administrator Urbia asked Council what areas they would like staff to focus on. Mayor Ristow stated in the past Department Heads brought requests to the City Administrator. Human Resources Director Wendlandt stated staff shortages have been identified. If the next budget shows more for staff, they would like direction from Council. Councilmember Cordes stated it depends on how much the budget is increased. Mayor Ristow stated City Administrator Urbia has to decide what requests can be presented to Council. Councilmember Cordes stated day-to- day operations are up to the..Q!Y Administrator. Ifmore support staff is needed, then perhaps we cannot buy more police cars~ouncilmember Fogarty stated she is talking with legislators to make sure the city does not lose the levy lim~ She asked if City Administrator Urbia was asking ifthe money becomes available and we can expand the budget where we personally would like to see departments expand. City Administrator Urbia stated he is trying to gauge what would be reasonable. Councilmember Fitch stated if we have a police officer hurt, what kind ofliability do we have as far as backup. Councilmember Soderberg stated we are working on a 2002 income with 23% growth in three years. In goal setting he suggested establishing a policy for ratios. The ratio could be by population or by number of streets. Councilmember Fitch stated if it is determined that police and fire are first, then others are second. Mayor Ristow stated City Administrator Urbia needs to feel comfortable bringing the recommendations to Council. Facilities - City Hall and Satellite Fire Station Council approved a recommendation on City Hall at the Council Meeting. Staffwill continue to communicate on the project. Regarding the fire station, the results of the soil borings are in and staff will meet to review the results before presenting them to Council. The site is next to the Maintenance Facility. Staffhas a concern that using this site could cause problems for Maintenance Facility expansion and also to have enough room for the fire station. Councilmember Soderberg stated we are not locked into that site. It could be within the area. City Administrator Urbia will be meeting with Fire Chief Kuchera on Monday. He will ask about response times and have the ISO Representative there for information. Councilmember Fogarty noted a majority ofthe new fire department members are from the north end. They are coming south to the fire station and then going north again. This brings response times up. Mayor Ristow suggested a site to the east on the Genstar property. City Administrator Urbia would like to look ahead to buy land. Councilmember Cordes suggested discussing facilities at the goal setting retreat. City Administrator Urbia stated he will be attending the school facility meetings. He met with the Superintendent and they agreed ifthere was a meeting relating to parks, Park and Recreation Director Distad would be invited. Mayor Ristow stated the Fire Station is a public safety issue just like the police. He stated after the Police and Maintenance facilities were done, the Fire Station was actually ahead of them at Council Workshop April 6, 2004 Page 3 one time. Then it was put back after the Police and Maintenance facilities. Councilmember Soderberg stated the final report stated Maintenance facility, Police facility, City Hall, Recreational facility, Fire Station. Councilmember Cordes stated at one time, before the initial task force, the Fire Station was identified as a priority. Councilmember Soderberg stated the official final task force report was accepted by the Council. The needs were identified by the citizens. Currently the priority list is City Hall, Parks facility, and Fire Station. Mayor Ristow stated if it is a safety issue along with police, that takes priority over parks. Councilmember Fitch stated you cannot do most of what is wanted with the Park facility without the voters deciding. Councilmember Fogarty stated the last time Fire Chief Kuchera spoke to Council he understood City Hall was ahead ofthe Fire Station. City Administrator Urbia stated staff is working on the RFP for the Parks facility and the process for City Hall is moving ahead. Councilmember Soderberg stated by doing the staff study on the Fire Station that process is moving ahead as well in the order established by the task force. Mayor Ristow stated it does not matter who established it, ifthe ISO comes and our premiums go up because we have not planned for a Fire Station, there will be a lot of political conflict asking why didn't we plan for it. Councilmember Fogarty stated we are working on it and Fire Chief Kuchera should be on top of it to make sure we are not paying higher premiums. Councilmember Fitch felt a longer retreat cycle will help us develop a little more detailed priority than what we have now. Upcoming Budget Cycle Including the Capital Improvement Plan (and Pavement Management System) City Administrator Urbia stated he will obtain more details from staff on the budget process. If it has worked, there is no need to change it. The CIP will be presented to Council in June along with the Pavement Management System. He suggested determining a level of what can be done each year for each part of the city and how that will affect taxes. Councilmember Fogarty suggested discussing this in the goal setting retreat. Community Involvement City Administrator Urbia will be joining the Lions, and attending school facility meetings. He has started going to various businesses and will continue. Councilmember Fitch stressed residents are very, very happy the City Administrator lives in the city. He has received a lot of comment on that and thanked him for making the move so quickly. City Administrator Urbia stated he would welcome any suggestions from Council as to things he should attend. Councilmember Soderberg stated to meet the downtown business owners would be excellent public relations. Mayor Ristow asked about him attending meetings with the townships. City Administrator Urbia stated he has attended an EFP AC meeting. Councilmember Soderberg agreed it would be good for him to attend as the opportunity presents itself. Councilmember Fitch stated Council used to meet every year with Lakeville. It would not hurt for Council and staff to meet with the townships. Mayor Ristow stated City Administrator Urbia has been doing a good job with this in the short time he has been here. Relationship with ISD 192 City Administrator Urbia will be attending school facility meetings. Mayor Ristow stated Council used to meet with the school board once a year. Council Workshop April 6, 2004 Page 4 CounciVStaff - Roles/Relationship Councilmember Soderberg stated there is a Council policy in place right now, where the City Administrator deals with staff. Ifthere are any performance issues, it is up to the City Administrator. If any Councilmembers get into addressing staff on performance issues, the City Administrator should step in and tell them to back off. It is not Council's place. If Council has an issue with staff performance, they will come to the City Administrator and let him deal with it. If anyone in Council oversteps that boundary, they would expect the City Administrator to tell them to knock it off in no uncertain terms. We have a policy in place for that reason. Councilmember Fitch stated establishing that policy was the best thing Council ever did. Councilmember Cordes added if Council makes a decision and if staff reinvents that decision, she would expect the City Administrator to step in and say this is the directive from Council and we need to follow their directive. If Council makes a decision, they should follow that decision. Mayor Ristow stated the biggest thing is to follow through. If he receives a complaint, he calls the City Administrator and expects it to be followed through. Instead of going to the staff person, he would prefer to go to the City Administrator. Councilmember Fitch stated he has a short list: 1) Do not lie to me, tell me the truth. Don't let your staff bring something to us or you bring something when you know there is hidden information and then you are not willing to do anything about it afterward. 2) If you say you are going to do something, follow through on it and finish it. 3) Be fiscally responsible to our citizens. Make sure we provide the maximum amount for the least amount of tax dollar expenditures. Otherwise as far as day-to-day, the City Administrator has to handle that. Treat all Councilmembers with the same respect and give all the same information. Mayor Ristow stated we looked for strengths and qualifications when we hired the Administrator and that is what he expects. Councilmember Cordes stated he was hired to do the job. You are the person in charge. Don't be afraid to discuss things with staff. Staff should look to him for guidance. Councilmember Soderberg felt all the issues have been covered. Councilmember Fogarty stated we have a great staff. One thing that should be a high priority is staff retention. People will be offered better jobs and she would not want to see anyone held back. She wants to make sure that we are never encouraging anyone to seek out jobs. Recognizing staff for ajob well done can go a long way. Praise publicly, don't criticize publicly. Mayor Ristow stated if the City Administrator ever embarrassed a staff member publicly he would embarrass him right back. That is not the place to do that. Treat them the same way you would like to be treated. Mayor Ristow stated City Administrator Urbia has the support of the entire Council and he should not be afraid to tell Council a mistake was made. City Administrator Urbia agreed being honest and straightforward is best. Mayor Ristow stated Mr. Harry Brull will come back in 6 months for a performance evaluation. Councilmember Fitch asked City Administrator Urbia what he expected of Council. City Administrator Urbia replied to be supportive and if there are issues to let him know immediately. The best thing is to communicate. If Council has any suggestions for community involvement he would welcome them. Councilmember Soderberg stated there is nothing wrong with making a mistake. The problem comes with continuing it. Councilmember Fitch added, or covering it up. Councilmember Soderberg stated ultimately the City Administrator's job is to do what is best for the city. Councilmember Fitch stated he really appreciated the job City Administrator Urbia has been doing and his involvement. So far we are off on the right foot and he appreciated the communication. Council Workshop April 6, 2004 Page 5 Council discussed the MUSA Review Committee meeting to be held April 7. Mayor Ristow stated when he and Councilmember Fitch volunteered for the MUSA Committee he mentioned he would not be able to make a couple meetings. Councilmember Fogarty has been attending the meetings, so Mayor Ristow stated she could continue if she wanted. Councilmember Fogarty agreed to continue attending the meetings. If she cannot attend, then Mayor Ristow will substitute for her. MOTION by Cordes, second by Soderberg to adjourn at 6:50 p.m. APIF MOTION CARRIED. Respe~tfully submitted, /f-7p/ r "M./? A'd ~~~~/' /,"-~AJ ~hia Muller Executive Assistant