05-08-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING April 24, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 10 The general fund expenditures at the end of the first quarter are at 22.4 percent which is on target for the year. There are a few departments that are tracking over budget. The first one is the Mayor/Council due to the fact that member services in organizations like the League of Minnesota Cities are already paid for the year. There has also been a higher-than-normal utilization of trainings available to the Council. The next is legal services resulting from a number of lawsuits which have a cost of $80,000 to date. Staff is considering recording these expenses to the insurance fund as a way to keep the department at a budgeted level for the year. The next is fire protection which has already been discussed. Engineering is at 50 percent right now. This is for the overage for GIS as the City continues to improve the cartograph database. The department is a very small piece of the general fund budget, she said, and staff will monitor this department budget through the rest of the year. Building permit revenue increased in January and February and decreased slightly in March with an overall first quarter increase in building permit revenue of 3.6 percent from last year. The City’s investments have earned interest of $71,924 the first quarter of 2023 compared to $20,300 for the same period last year. Olson reported the auditors will start their audit next Monday at City Hall. PUBLIC WORKS REPORT 11. POSITION DESCRIPTION AND RECRUITING APPROVAL / UTILITY MAINTENANCE Edwards said Public Works is looking at some organizational changes bringing forward the creation of a utility worker position. This does not change the overall number of employees in Public Works, but would reclassify two of the positions from general maintenance workers to utility workers. He said reasons include recognizing the additional licensing and expertise required by utility workers with the ever-increasing technology base within City utilities. It would bring some of the things that the City currently has to outsource to contractors in-house after sending a couple of the workers to required trainings. It would also create some growth opportunities with the department. Currently if you come in as a maintenance worker, the only opportunity you might have for some kind of increases is if one of the two supervisors was to retire, you might be able to apply for those jobs. Edwards said if the most senior employees were selected for these positions the budget impact is estimated at a $5,700 difference for each position which is easily within the budget. It is also important to recognize that those two positions would be budgeted out of utilities, which are enterprise funds. So it's just one more piece that we're trying to get focused, to get a more skill set within the utilities. That doesn't mean that the individuals will not be helping on the streets or parks. But their primary focus will be on the utilities. We have 52 sewage lift stations that we maintain, a number of fire hydrants, three water treatment facilities, and it's becoming more focused in those areas on preventive maintenance. Walsh pointed out that some years ago none of those 46 lift stations had backup generators and now most do. And by doing that, you’ve got more preventative maintenance. We outsource that, and now we're bringing it in-house. So I think it's a smart thing to do. Johnson said he likes hearing that we are finding ways to train our own people and outsourcing less. And that's part of what this will allow the City to do.