City Council Minutes 2014 10 14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Metadata

Thumbnails

Annotations

City Council Meeting Minutes October 14, 2014 Page 9 of 23 Council member Stolzmann stated she liked how the Police Department listed their goals citywide, but felt there should be more department priorities. Some of the workload measures and the goals would justify the new position. She noted the number of Code Enforcement Officers is the same as in 2004. Council member Keany inquired if the Code Enforcement officers are working in the later evenings, would there be a reduction in patrol officers. Chief Hayes stated there is no reduction in the patrol officers at this time. He noted a code call on an animal would take a patrol officer out of service, by requiring the officer to take the animal to the Humane Society. The officer is lost for emergency response. Chief Hayes was not sure he would change one Code enforcement officer for a patrol officer in the evening hours. Council member Keany noted at one time there was a request for overnight kennels to house the animals until the next day when the Code enforcement officer could transport to the Humane Society, which would eliminate patrol officers from transporting animals to the Humane Society. Chief Hayes explained a heated area would be required to house the animals and many times animals are injured requiring immediate transport to the Humane Society by patrol officers. Also if the animals have an identifying chip, they can be logged into the system and the owners can be notified. Council member Moss stated she had experience with Code Enforcement and was fully supportive of an additional code officer. Additionally, it would not take a patrol officer off the street. Mayor Muckle did not feel any staffing request in the 2015 budget was unreasonable. He felt an additional Code Enforcement Officer and an Open Space Ranger would be a benefit. He fully supported both positions. LIBRARY AND MUSEUM SERVICES DEPARTMENT Council member Stolzmann requested more library specific goals. She stated the examples presented at the study session which she would like to see in the budget. She felt the measures listed are so effective they don't illustrate how low the staffing levels are. She requested some workload measures on how the workload has increased with insufficient staffing in order to justify the additional staffing request. Mayor Muckle supported the museum, children's librarian and the open space positions. Mayor Pro Tem Dalton agreed open space land must be maintained. He explained this is the reason why the uses for the open space funds were expanded to include maintenance and maintenance includes people. He voiced his support for the Open Space /Park Ranger position.