The Becker City Council spent the majority of their hour-and-a-half meeting Tuesday talking about a consulting contract intended to assist the city with various administrative tasks.

 

City Administrator Greg Pruszinske was tasked by council a while ago to look into hiring a consultant to take some of the administrative duties off the plate of Pruszinske and other department heads over the next few months. 

 

Pruszinske contacted Cindy Shore of Shore Dynamics who would be asked to assist with operational and strategic planning; process analysis, design, and improvement; policy analysis, design, and improvement; city-wide leadership with a general focus on public works, golf, parks and recreation, human resources, information technology, administration, communications and community relations, community development, and finance; negotiating, collaborating, coaching, and mentoring; planning, assigning, directing and assessing the work of others and providing support where needed.

 

The contract with Shore would be month-to-month and council expects the consulting to range from a few months to a half-a-year, depending on the findings. Shore agreed to the tasks and the city would utilize her services up to 24 hours per week at $200 an hour.

 

Council continued discussion on the benefits of having someone like Shore on board to help keep departments running as efficiently as they can. Shore is a former employee at Sherco (Xcel Energy) and she has more than 30 years of hands-on experience in the energy sector with specific experience in nuclear and fossil fuel power. 

 

Shore also has more than 25 years of project management experience in IT and general business and has extensive skills with systematic reviews of engineering specifications; technical documentation and data gathering; security vulnerability discovery; policy and procedure creation; and, operational improvements.

 

Council decided to check into a consultant to allow for Pruszinske to focus his efforts on his administration duties, rather than duties outside his core business.

 

All members of council agreed the need for a consultant was paramount, but Member Rick Hendrickson balked at the rate ($200/hr.) that Shore Dynamics quoted.

 

“I have no issue with Cindy or the work she would assist us with, but I do have an issue with the cost,” said Hendrickson. “We are looking at over $100,000 for six months work. That’s significant.”

 

Lori Keller interjected that she thinks Shore’s rate is reasonable.

 

“It’s right around the market rate,” she said.

 

Mike Doering also expressed some concern over the costs but Todd Hanrahan said having Shore would be a huge benefit for Becker, saying “Cindy is very familiar with the fabric of this community.”

 

It was determined that Shore’s progress and development in the position would be monitored regularly to ensure the city is getting the maximum return for their investment. After several months to six, council will take the consultant’s recommendations as far as  what changes should be made, whether to continue to utilize Shore Dynamics or to hire on an assistant going forward.

 

The contract was motioned by Keller, seconded by Hanrahan and approved by all council members.

 

Streets Supervisor Joe Danielson asked council to approve the replacement of Bank Street light fixtures.

 

Danielson said public works had budgeted $65,000 for Bank Street, Street Light Fixture replacement in 2017. His staff received two quotes — one from Hubbard Electric ($39,806.56) and one from Design Electric ($39,527) for the replacement of the fixtures. 

 

Danielson added that along with this purchase, he would like to  purchase a couple spare replacement poles for Bank Street. 

 

“We would then have replacements on hand in case one gets damaged,” he said. 

 

Total cost for the project was deemed as not to exceed $50,000 (extra poles and wiring added). 

 

Danielson said Hubbard’s quote came in just slightly higher than Design Electrics, but prefers to go with Hubbard due to them being local (Becker) and they having some advanced features the other company did not.

 

Council approved.

 

Danielson asked council to approve the replacement of two pickup trucks for the public works department.

 

Danielson says public works would like to replacing a Chevrolet extended cab pickup with a new, 2018 F150 crew cab pickup. He said this truck will be  purchased through the state contract at $39,686.76. 

 

Public works has budgeted $38,500 in 2017 and with the trade-in value at $10,500, the truck would fall into budget. 

 

“This truck, however will be transferred to the BCC,” said Danielson. 

 

Danielson said he would also like to replace the Chevy crew cab ¾-ton pickup with a new, 2018 F250 crew cab pickup. He also plans to purchase the vehicle through the state contract at $39,176.84. He added the current pickup will then transfer to the golf course. 

 

The ¾-ton truck has a $13,000 trade-in value.

 

Council voted to approve the replacement trucks at a cost not to exceed $84,500.

 

County Attorney Kathleen Heaney gave an update on the goings-on at the government center over the last year.

 

Heaney said her department handled 25 felony, 24 gross misdemeanor and 211 misdemeanor files in 2017. Of the fines received from these files, 1/3 comes back to her department to pay for court cases; keeping phones open all day, every day, all year; reviewing and administrating search warrants, paying for appeals and many other expenses.

 

Heaney spent a few moments talking about domestic abuse issues and how the county is doing their very best to protect the victim’s safety.

 

She also discussed the trends associated with substance abuse including alcohol being the drug choice of Sherburne County. She also said meth is second to alcohol and prescription drug abuse is steadily rising.

She mentioned the courts are seeing more and more marijuana wax problems since last year with opiods growing in popularity.

 

“One of our biggest goals is to keep juveniles who appear in juvenile court out of adult court,” she said.

 

Items on the workshop agenda included discussion on the 2018 final budget, a liquor code update and further discussion on the space needs analysis.

 

The next becker City Council meeting is Feb. 6 at 6 p.m.