City Council Agenda and Packet 2018 09 17

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City Council Meeting Minutes August 28, 2018 Page 6 of 7 City Manager Balser stated all of the positions on the list are needed to maintain service levels. Yes, they are new positions but it is to continue existing services; enhance what we have. Deputy City Manager Davis stated some positions are to address what we are hearing from employees; where they need support and where we can create efficiency across the organization. Councilmember Leh noted the organizational development training specialist is good. It says a lot to staff that someone is dedicated to this. Councilmember Loo suggested the communications, business analyst, and organizational development positions could be contracted out. That allows us to end the contract if we need to. City Manager Balser stated we are getting to the point where organizational culture is important. We need a communications person in house who knows our culture and is part of our thought process throughout the organization. We need to allow existing staff to do their day-to-day work. As to the data analyst, we get requests all the time for data/information we have, and we want to provide Council (and the public). This is information you can use for good decision making. We have reached a level of complexity in which we need these positions in-house rather than contracting out piece meal to help us become more efficient. Deputy City Manager Davis stated we have added technology, servers, cameras, and other pieces, but staff doesn't have the capacity to leverage the technology to use it to its capacity or to improve our processes. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated he is personally interested in strategic one-time investments in technology and equipment without having to make long-term continuing investments. Councilmember Stolzmann agreed we need to look it at holistically. We need to do a better job of tying in the KPIs to the position requests. It continues to be an additive process, instead we need to do a better job of what services we need to continue and what we might stop. That is part of what is leading to fatigue. Councilmember Stolzmann asked if there are places we can look at partnerships with other jurisdictions; collaborations. We need to determine what can be done by contracting or if there is a good hybrid of in-house and contracting. Councilmember Stolzmann stated she is hoping the Police Department could always have enough people so we are never understaffed; same for water. For the 24/7 critical operations that should be the goal. 37