City Council Minutes 2016 09 27 SP

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City Council Meeting Minutes September 27, 2016 Page 3 of 6 City Manager Fleming stated another priority in the Transportation Program is a purchasing manager position. City Manager Fleming noted this position is strongly supported by the management team members who want someone with technical expertise to help each department. Evaluating proposals is critical to departments and they would like someone dedicated to this rather than taking existing staff away from regular duties to work on proposals and bidding. Based on the level of contracting and on-going activities we currently have, staff strongly supports the addition of this position. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated he thought this position is over budgeted and could be filled at a lower salary. Councilmember Loo asked in which departments these positons would be housed and to whom each position would report. City Manager Fleming stated the purchasing manager would likely be in the Finance Department (but housed in City Services) but details would be determined if Council funds the positions. Councilmember Keany agreed with Mayor Pro Tem Lipton on the possible lower salary for the purchasing manager and asked why we don't have a grant specialist on staff to help offset costs. City Manager Fleming stated his experience has been grant positions tend to spend more time learning about individual grants and what each department needs rather than actually get funding. He stated it is generally more effective to have staff in each department going after grants. He added the management team will look at it again to see if it makes sense. Councilmember Maloney agreed with Councilmember Loo that to whom these positons report is important. He added the description for the application support position seems too broad. He recommended the scope be more focused to the business applications and not a long list of other items. Councilmember Leh suggested the City should contract for a grant writer who can focus on specific great opportunities as needed. He also agreed with Councilmember Maloney that the job description for the application support specialist may be overly broad. City Manager Fleming stated other transportation priorities include increased funding for legal expenses to more accurately reflect actual costs and contracting for GIS services. He added staff has frequently budgeted a lower amount for legal services in the hopes of not spending as much, but that is simply not accurate. This increased amount should be a more accurate representation of what we need for legal services. Councilmember Stolzmann stated her concern with the overall increase in the cost of salaries and wages. She is concerned not with specifics of a job description but rather in making sure there is sufficient revenue to cover expenditures.