HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-27-2020 Council Work Session Minutes Orono City Council
Work Session
Monday,January 27,2020
Council Chambers 5:00 p.m.
AGENDA
PRESENT: Mayor Dennis Walsh, Council Members Richard F. Crosby II, Matt Johnson
and Victoria Seals. Staff members present were City Administrator Dustin Rief, Police Chief
Correy Farniok, Finance Director Ron Olson Director of Public Works/City Engineer, and
City Clerk Anna Carlson.
GUESTS:
1. Office Hours Discussion
City Administrator Dustin Rief began discussion describing the typical office hours
observed in the various department of the City. Rief explained he asked for a lake area
survey of cities for office hours. He found that primarily 8:00 a.m.to 4:30 p.m. was
widely used among those surveyed. He found that some cities overserved summer hours
and that Wayzata observes a summer hour schedule similar to Orono's year round, and
Excelsior observed a four day work week Monday through Thursday year round as well.
Rief added that Orono Public Works does have their current hours in their contract which
is 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily, so any changes may not affect them. Rief asked for input
from the City Council about how they would like to move forward.
Council Member Matt Johnson asked how the city got into the routine of the current
hours to begin with.
Rief was not quite sure when the summer hours began but concluded that it was in the
early 2000's.
Walsh mentioned that is was brought up for discussion a few years back and at that time
summer hours made sense however it is good to review it at times to make sure we are
doing things right.
Rief mentioned that Fridays are typically pretty quiet and the city has almost everything
available online which assists with the efficiency of customer service. It could go either
way, the city may be able to forward phones to the Police Department on Friday's or we
could look into doing alternating shifts much like what the Police Department
Administration current does.
Police Chief Correy Farniok discussed the current alternating shift schedule which his
employees observe during the summer months.
Matt Johnson mentioned that you never hear anyone say that they have issues with it but
he came here on a Friday and found out that City Hall was closed and did not feel that the
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customer service aspect was there because City Hall was not open. He added that he was
open to letting staff flex to accommodate the hours.
Farniok mentioned that the city had done some research by recording number of visitors
before they added summer hours.
Johnson asked how many people come to City Hall in a day.
Rief explained that it is all over the board and can range anywhere between 20 plus to 3
people. He added that we could take a tally but it may not conclude decent trend.
Johnson asked how many phone calls.
Rief explained that it may depend on the time of the month and it depends on what type
of notices or things like utility bill have went out. He added that he would estimate it to
be about 50 to 100 calls in a week.
Council Member Victoria Seals mentioned that she and Printup had looked at this two
years ago and she feels that we should be open all day on Fridays. She thinks that
whether it's two people or more our doors should be open. Seals added the city could do
a flex schedule but should have consistent hours which include open all day on Fridays.
Walsh added that the Police Department is already doing a flex system that works for
them City Hall should try it too. Walsh asked what direct would the Council like to see
staff take on this.
There was consensus that staff extend hours on Fridays in the summer and work with
staff to flex time to accommodate the summer hours.
Rief recommended that City Hall follow the hours observed by the Police Department
and that the City go to 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. allowing staff to come up with some sort of flex schedule for Fridays.
Seals mentioned the City should put out a post to the public that we are opening up all
days a week to better serve the public.
Adjourned: 5:36 p.m.
ATTEST:
tor
Anna Carlson, City Clerk Dennis Walsh, Mayor
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