01/07/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 1/7/20(13 Councilman Gareau asked the Mayor to advise Council as to the status of the process for finding a new city engineer. Mayor Musial said that the Service Director sent out inquiries to mayors of nearby cities indicating that we had a vacancy. A number of individuals did apply, but several of the applicants were discounted because they were not civil engineers. The others elected to indicate that they were not interested because of the political volatility in the city. Former City Engineer Deichmann was involved in evaluating the applicants. Councilman Gareau inquired if it was the Mayor's intention to hire the consulting engineer as the city engineer with one of the members of the firm serving in that capacity. Mayor Musial said he had not considered that as an option. The consulting engineer will be hired on a contract basis for a period of two months. During that time, the city would actively search for a city engineer to be hired as an employee. Councilman Gareau suggested that the search process be expanded to include the entire state. Because Councilman Gareau brought up the question, Law Director Dubelko noted he would have no legal problems with the city contracting with a consulting engineering frm who would, by contract, designate one of their members as the city engineer. Law Director Dubelko: 1) By law, he is required to make an annual report to City Council at the first regular meeting in January and is to address the following three items: business of the Law Department; monies collected by the Law Director during the year proceeding; such other matters as he deems proper to promote the good government and welfare of the city. The business of the Law Department: The budget. In 2002, the revised appropriations for the Law Department were approximately $266,000. About $254,000 was spent, leaving about $11,000 returned to the General Fund for re-appropriation this year. Traditionally, our city runs a lean Law Department. He and Assistant Law Director O'Malley have worked on city legal issues on a full-time basis. Prosecutor Dan Ryan, whose salary suggests that he is less than afull-time employee, nevertheless devoted a great number of hours in 2002 to the job of city prosecutor. A full-time legal secretary assists the three lawyers and also serves as a contact point when anyone in the city government needs to leave a message or otherwise contact the city Law Department. A city law clerk is assigned to more lengthy research projects at a rate of pay which is considerably less than what a lawyer is paid, and this helps to save tax dollars. Accessibility. One of his goals as city Law Director was to increase the accessibility to the city Law Dept., primarily for city officials and employees but also for residents. That goal has been accomplished. Presence at City Hall. This still remains a goal as sufficient space was not available at City Ha11 for the Law Department in 2002. Spaced was leased for two years at the Community Bldg. If space in a city building becomes available in 2004, the Law Dept. can relocate. If space is not available, he does have a two year option for the years 2004 and 2005. Possible city areas to house the Law Dept. could include the Recreation Center, Springvale, the current library building that will be vacated and 4