HomeMy WebLinkAboutOct 23, 1975OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
October 23, 1975
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The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. by Council President
Heintz. Roll Call: Logacz, Heintz, Norberg, and Land present.
Council President Heintz explained that Mayor Bruce Nawrocki would
arrive later as he had a prior commitment which delayed his arrival.
Motion by Land, seconded by Norberg, to name Tim Yantos as secretary
for this meeting. Roll Call: all ayes
Mr. Heintz then explained that the purpose of this meeting was to look into
the possibility of considering the position of Public Safety Director for
the City of Columbia Heights. He then asked the City Manager, Mr. Malcolm
O. Watson, to elaborate on the basis for this consideration. The City
Manager explained that the reason for looking into the possibility of
appointing a public safety director was due to the recent passing of Police
Chief Glader and the retirement in January, 1976, of Fire Chief Fran Bassett.
He explained briefly what the position of public safety director was in
other communities and pointed out that there was a wide spectrum of responsi-
bility with variations in almost every city. In some communities, the pub-
lic safety director was only in charge of the police department activities;
and in others, such as Burnsville, the responsibility was fairly broad where
the police and fire departments and civil defense were under the public safety
director and the department heads having varying degrees of authority over
their individual departments. The present charter arrangement was also ex-
plained; wherein the Fire Department is under the jurisdiction of the City
Manager, the same as other City departments, and the police is directly under
the Mayor.
Mr. Mel Aanerud, chairman of the City Charter Commission, then reported to
the Council that the Commission has already had a first and second reading of
the charter change which would place the Police Department under the City
Manager, the same as the Fire Department. No final action has been taken on
this amendment, but it was noted that this would lay the necessary ground work
for the public safety director position, if this is the desire of the Council.
Mr. Gerral Herringer of the Civil Service Commission informed the Council that
they have not determined as a group what would be the best approach to this
matter, but are most anxious that the Council make the decision soon so that
they can begin moving on a search for qualified persons for the position or posi-
tions in the Police and Fire Departments. Fire Chief Bassett informed the
Council that the present state law is so written that we are required to have an
individual named as fire chief and an assistant or deputy chief in order to
qualify for the insurance rebate allotment which is paid annually to the quali-
fied fire departments. He also reported that a few years ago, St. Anthony Village
had created a position of public safety director but abolished the position after
it had been in effect a short time. A question was raised from the audience at
this point about what the cost would be for a public safety director. Mr. Watson
stated that according to the area surveys the salary alone would be in excess of
$20,000. Mayor Nawrocki arrived then at 7:20 p.m. After a brief explanation to
the Mayor about what had transpired up to this point of the meeting, he assumed
the chairmanship and proceeded with other discussions on the public safety dir-
ector position. Mayor Nawrocki read a list of the various Minnesota communities
that were using the position of public safety director, further elaborating
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on the wide variation in responsibilities between the duties assigned to
that person in the communities. Mr. Vernon Moore of the Civil Service
Commission raised the question of the possibility of joint training bet-
ween the Police and Fire Departments in certain areas. Members of the
Poliee and Fire Departments responded by stating that generally speaking,
the individuals who were serving as police or fire fighters had selected
that profession very deliberately and were not interested in the other
activity. One member of the Fire Department indicated that he would not be
at all interested in police work, in his own case. A copy of the Richfield
job description of their public safety director was then distributed to the
Council members at this point. Norberg stated to the members that the
Richfield public safety director serves in an administrative position with
the fire, police, civil defense, and protective services under his. Rich-
field's public safety director then serves as civil defense director. Some-
one in the audience then asked if a study could be done to look at all the
different positions and the total cost involved with each, and how long
would this study take? The Mayor said that all depended upon what we wanted
in such a study. Mr. Herringer asked what the advantages would be in creat-
ing this public safety director position? The Mayor indicated that this
would depend on the community itself, stating that the city might not be able
to pay a very high level of salary for both a police and fire chief and by
having a combined position they would be able to finance a bit more for a
more capable person covering a public safety director responsibility. Don
Aaker, fire inspector, reminded the group again of the requirements of having
a chief and deputy chief in the Fire Department to safeguard the 2% insurance
rebate which is made to the City. The Mayor then noted that the disadvantages
of having a public safety director is that it would be adding another level
of administration within our organization and could cause some problems if
you already had people in the positions of chief for the police and fire de-
partments. Councilman Norberg noted that there were some advantages to having
someone from within the department serving at the head of that department, as
a life long familiarity with the town is helpful in that they would understand
the people in our community and have a personal attachment for their own home
town.. Councilman Logacz noted that if ~e are not planning to streamline the
system and are simply adding an administrator, he could not agree to the
creation of the position since it would just be adding another cost to us. He
also commented that a lot of familiarity on the part of the individual is not
necessarily an advantage at all times, but it is sometimes better to have some-
one come from the outside as they might see and do things differently and more
efficiently. Sergeant Lohse stated that we should have an intermediate com-
mand position in the Police Department if we go to the position of public safety
director. He felt that the intermediate command postion should be established
now as the present situation is not working as well as it could be working
with such a position in existence. Sergeant Jendro echoed Sergeant Lohse's
feelings and said we should establish the intermediate position immediately.
He also said that as a taxpayer he would expect that whoever is chosen should
be well examined, and he favored the public safety director position. He
further indicated that this public safety director should not be under the
civil service. Mr. James Hill, the public safety director for Fridley, re-
sponded to direct questions in respect to the situation in Fridley. Mr.
Herringer asked if a citizen in Fridley were to call with a general complaint,
to whom would he be directed in the Fridley offices? Would he speak to the
public safety director or some other person? Mr. Hill said that such a
caller would probably be directed to one of his sergeants, but if the question
were an administrative nature, the call would be directed to him. Mrs. Pesek
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asked if the public safety director position creation would decrease the
overall cost of department operations. The Mayor indicated that it might
not end up to be a cheaper operation, but could improve the service and
give more efficient administration to the overall organization. Sergeant
Land said that each community with public safety directors should be
contacted to get their opinions and that we should also contact the com-
munities where the position had been brought into existence and later dis-
continued. At this point, Councilman Land stated that ultimately the
decision must be made by the City Council and that each of the members pre-
sent should face up to this responsibility as soon as possible. Councilman
Heintz said that at this point he would like the City Manager to compile a
complete cost estimate on various organizational arrangements utilizing the
intermediate command positions and assuming such rearrangements as could be
done with the existing authorized department strength. Mayor Nawrocki
pointed out that we presently have four patrol squads consisting of a ser-
geant and three (3) patrolmen under him. If we were to create another posi-
tion such as lieutenant or captain, and leave him with just sergeant duties,
this would not seem to be justified. Trying to work within the present
strength would make it difficult to rearrange the personnel in a matter that
would give effective coverage. Councilman Heintz pointed out what he wanted
to know is what the potential cost would be to set up various arrangements?
Councilman Norberg stated that he would agree that the cost is important
and the personality of the new person hired was also important, but that
other variables are also important to us. Mayor Nawrocki then stated that
another possible area that someone might want to explore would be the join-
ing of other governments such as Fridley or the county to handle the public
safety director responsibilities. He pointed out that our north suburban
fire departments work together closely and our police department works
through the county dispatching services as a cooperative agreement. Council-
man Norberg indicated that he would be opposed to getting involved with agree-
ments with a lot of other communities or the county. He felt that the present
working arrangements are good for us and that they should be continued. A
lengthy discussion was then held on the joint training programs with the North
Hennepin Vocational Technical Center handling the training arrangements for
which Columbia Heights has applied for membership. Training facilities are
under development at the present time. The Mayor explained that we have asked
the Center to change the by-laws to allow Columbia Heights to become a member.
Motion by Norberg, seconded by Heintz, to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 p.m.
Roll Call: all ayes
B~u~ G. Nawrocki, Mayor
secretary