City Council Minutes 02-15-1983 SpecialMINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING - MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
February 15, 1983 - 7:00 A.M.
Members Present: Arve Grimsmo, Jack Maxwell, Dan Blonigen, Ken
Maus, Fran Fair.
Members Absent: None.
A special meeting was duly held at 7:00 A.M. Tuesday, Feb-
ruary 15th, 1983 for the express purpose of conducting evalua-
tion sessions of the City Administrator, the City Attorney, the
City Planner and the City Engineer.
Administrator Eidem began the meeting stating that he felt con-
sultant evaluations should be held on periodic basis to keep the
perimeters of the working relationship clearly defined. He noted
that at salary negotiation time, he himself was not formally
evaluated and while the salary increase granted seemed to express
general satisfaction with his performance, he wished to be in-
cluded in the evaluation so that were there areas that he could
improve upon, he would be alerted to them and could begin work
on improvement. Council members Maus and Fair both raised the
issue that Eidem seemed to react personally when a professional
recommendation was not accepted by the Council. Eidem concurred.
He stated that he would continue to defend and debate strongly
his recommendations, but if those recommendations were not
accepted by Council action, he would do his best not to let it
bother him.
City Attorney, Gary Pringle, came before the Council next. Eidem
requested that Pringle prepare quarterly reports for him that
stipulate, among other things, the current status or disposition
on all city cases and in the event cases were pending a proposed
plan of action. Pringle said he thought this would be a good
idea and he would be happy to do it. Pringle noted that his new
rates would be $50.00 per hour, which is $10.00 per hour less
than his usual rate. Eidem addressed comments that were made
earlier about Pringle's accessibility and it was agreed that all
legal business, whether initiated by the Public Works Director
or Council Member, Finance Director or any other city official
would be channeled through Eidem, since he meets with Pringle
on a weekly basis. Pringle also gave a brief explanation to the
members of the Council about why, in some cases, he must remove
himself from a particular case and recommend different. counsel.
Mayor Grimsmo raised the questions concerning Pringle's success
ratio in handling city cases; Pringle noted that he had never
lost a city case at this time.
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Council Minutes - 2/15/83
John Badalich, representing consulting engineers, Orr-Schelen-
Mayeron, & Associates, was present to discuss their performance
as well as a proposed new contract. Eidem suggested that the
actual contract negotiation be postponed and discussed between
this meeting and the next regular meeting and if agreed upon
would be ratified at that next meeting. Eidem did raise a
question concerning hourly fees on smaller construction pro-
jects and whether or not language of this sort "not to exceed"
could be inserted when dealing with hourly fee projects.
Badalich indicated that would be acceptable. Eidem also asked
the question as to whether or not there could be alternative
types of feasibility studies that the City could request rang-
ing from the very general one to three page type report to
the more complex and detailed. Again Badalich said there
would be no problem. Badalich raised the question as to who
was to authorize work done by the engineering firm. The issue
of work authorized by the former zoning administrator with
respect to property exchange near Dundas Road was raised.
The Council stipulated that all engineering authorization must
be done through the administrator's office. Eidem noted that
in particular cases, the authorization may be of a nature of
specifying another person to work with the engineering firm.
Eidem stated that since his knowledge would be limited in the
engineering field, it would not be efficient to have to get
separate authorization on every piece of detail that the
public works director could more efficiently handle. Public
Works Director, John Simola, also raised a question about
how soon after completion of a project the City could expect
to receive their "as bu ilts". This issue is to be worked
out between the engineer and Simola on their own time. Before
leaving, Badalich noted that it might be wise in the near
future to investigate the possibility of updating the compre-
hensive plan.
John Uban, representing Howard Dahlgren & Associates, the
City's Consulting Planner, was the last person to come before
the Council for evaluation. As with the OSM evaluation, the
question of authorization was raised. Again, the Council
directed Uban that any work should be authorized expressly
through the administrator's office unless such authorization
is given by the Council to work directly with some other
member of the City Staff. Uban noted that work with City of
Monticello projects was occasionally more time consuming
since his firm was used on an as needed basis rather than
on an on going basis that would allow them to stay familiar
with all the developments. Uban noted that some cities paid
a basic retainer fee that accommodated the on going review
of all city occurrences. He said that the City may wish to
investigate that matter.
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Council Minutes - 2/15/83
In concluding the meeting the Council noted that, in.general,
the consultants all were performing acceptably, but that
periodic evaluations could be effective in keeping the working
relationship efficient and productive.
Before adjournment, Eidem raised the issue of having summaries
of Council meeting minutes published rather than the entire text
of the proceedings. He noted that legislation allows for pub-
lication of summaries, and by doing so the City could save
$1500 or more. The Council gave their unanimous support to
this procedure. Eidem said he would talk to the publisher about
the change.
There being no other bussines, the meeting was adjourned.
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Thomas Eidem
City Administrator
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