December 13, 2017
Meeting called to order at 9:00 A.M. by Mayor Noss with all council present along with City Manager Matt Pantzke.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the 2018 budget, water project and water rates, City hall hours, Planning and Zoning, wage draw changes, wage increases, 2018 Tax levy, and meet with City staff.
First item discussed was the 2018 budget, Matt presented the council with the budget and summary highlighting significant changes for 2018. The budget was tabled for discussion of water rate changes and other business.
Matt provided the council with the recommended water rate changes that He, Councilman Andres and Mayor Noss are suggesting. After Discussion Council felt the changes were needed and asked Matt to draft resolutions to reflect the changes/increases for approval at the December 20th 2017 meeting.
Next the council discussed wage draw changes for 2018 and city hall hours due to the hiring of a full time bar manager. Matt and Jody will no longer be paid from the on sale as their involvement there has diminished. Matt will train on the water and wastewater systems starting 1/1/2018 and begin working every third weekend there. City hall will be open continuous from 8am until 4 pm Monday thru Friday with all fulltime staff based out of city hall taking ½ lunch as opposed to 1 hour lunches now. Jody will then be paid 37.5 hours per week to reflect the change in working hours. Matt and Patrick will than have 5% of his wages coming from water and 5% from wastewater, both employees will be in a three weekend rotation with Mike Hubner to give the City better coverage on those systems. All three of them will be working 37.5 hours Monday through Friday, and will be working up to 8 hours every third weekend to average out to 40 hours per week. The Council will forward this for final approval on 12/20/17 as well.
Matt then informed the council that he had done a formal review with the 3 fulltime staff based out of city hall and shared the results with them. Following that Mike, Jody and Police Chief Strack came in to individually meet with the council, Patrick Kalis was unavailable as he is attending training this week. Jody was comfortable with the changes and shared that she enjoyed her position with the city and agreed that she had some areas for improvement. Mike was also comfortable with the changes and would be interested in some additional cross training. Charles Strack then met with the council to share his thoughts on the Police Department. Mitch has given his resignation and will no longer be employed by the city as a part time Police Officer. Strack does know some other officers that would be willing to work part time for the city. He did say that he cannot work during the day Monday through Friday as it conflicts with his fulltime job; he stated that he can primarily work evenings and possibly a dayshift on weekends or holidays. He also said that he feels that eventually the city could discontinue the Police Department. As for his wage he asked if he could be paid part salary and part hourly to make sure he is not double dipping from both positions. He also asked to have his wage increased to be in line with his fulltime job in Little Falls as he does not receive benefits from the city of Randall. After the employee meetings the council all agreed that we need to explore other options for law enforcement in the City of Randall.
The council than resumed budget discussions and agreed the budget should be presented for approval. The budget does not call for a tax levy increase. They also will propose a 2.5% wage increase on most employees. The part time bar staff will not get the 2.5 percent or the part time cleaning person as she will receive a step increase 1/1/18. Matt was asked to check with surrounding cities to determine their council compensation rates.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:00 PM