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4/19/2021 - City Council - Work Session - Minutes CITY OF SPRING PARK WORK SESSION MINUTES APRIL 19, 2021 – 5:00 PM SPRING PARK CITY HALL CALL TO ORDER Present: Jerome P. Rockvam, Mark Chase, Jeff Hoffman, Pamela Horton, and Gary Hughes Mayor Rockvam chaired the meeting. Others present: City Administrator Tolsma, City Attorney Tietjen, City Clerk Nelson, PeopleService Regional Manager Stang, Steve Erickson, Mike Mason 5:00 – Public Works Discussion a. Staff Side-by-Side Analysis b. PeopleService Proposal c. City of Orono Proposal Tolsma reviewed the side-by-side analysis. The analysis breaks down into two components, task oriented and the intangibles that are hard to put a dollar amount to. Discussion will be had on employee turnover, institutional knowledge, and Equipment & Capabilities. Hoffman inquired to the additional service of utility billing from Orono. Tolsma stated it would be $15,000 if they did the utility billing and further discussion was had on numbers if we wanted to add the utility billing service. Tolsma stated the utility billing component is not reflected in the numbers because there are many other options. Rockvam reviewed the collection process and time involved. He stated there a couple things we have not factored in at all and those cost factors would be Dan’s time, the amount of the time Dan will need to spend on Public Works will be less. Those items would be handled directly by the City of Orono. Tolsma stated his time involve- ment is directly proportional to the longevity of the person with PeopleService. If they bring in a new person to cover Spring Park, he is significantly involved in the first one to two years with that new employee. As time goes on that person will learn our system and his time goes down. Tolsma stated that is one of the biggest discussion items for tonight that in 4.5 years with PeopleService there has been three different operators. He stated that if Shawn were going to be here another 10 years that would change his calculus on which was a better option. Rockvam stated there is monetary value in experience. Tolsma stated it is hard to put an exact dollar amount to institutional knowledge, but it comes down to what are you comfortable with. Rockvam stated that is the other item that needs to be factored in, institutional knowledge. DJ has 30 plus years of work experience working for the City of Spring Park and there is a dollar amount to that. Hughes inquired to the PeopleService mapping software. Rockvam stated the City of Orono has the same imaging mapping and discussion was had on the mapping software of each option. Rockvam opened the discussion for general questions. He asked if anyone went to tour the public works depart- ment in Orono. Chase stated that he did and in general was impressed with equipment availability, the fact that they are able to do curb stop locations and have an impressive facility. Rockvam stated he went to look, he also stated they have a nice facility and liked that everything was inside, and equipment can be stored out of the ele- ments. He stated the Laker Pioneer reported that they are expanding their public works department and liked that they are proactive when it comes to public works. He stated the City of Orono has taken good care of their residents and would do the same for Spring Park. Work Session Proceedings April 19, 2021 Page 2 Hoffman inquired if the proposed utility billing was included in the side-by-side numbers. Tolsma stated he did not include any optional services. Rockvam wanted to make it extremely clear we are not changing our snow plowing service. Tolsma stated the numbers include base services and a typical year in terms of emergency services. Discussion was had on Sharon retiring at the end of the year and what the position would look like after that. Tolsma stated it is hard to answer until we decide if we are going to contract out utility billing and further discussion was had. Tolsma stated there is value in having a third person in the office even if you contract out utility billing. The City can outsource utility billing but not claims (accounts receivable/payable). It is important for people to know they can still work with us at city hall if they have issues. Chase questioned if feedback has been given to PeopleService as to how difficult it is for us when a new person is brought in and if it is possible to have a senior person learn the system. He also inquired if there is a potential to have a shorter contact with PeopleService. Rockvam stated the counter argument to that is you still have one person. That is not the case on the other side, the City of Orono was going to hire another person. Rockvam stated there are pros and cons on both sides but these numbers do not include institutional knowledge, Dan’s time, and other factors. Horton inquired to the amount of time Tolsma would have to give the City of Orono daily to give instruction. Tolsma stated there would not be a massive difference in time spent if things stayed the same but if there is turnover with Orono the turnover would be one or two of a core group as opposed to with PeopleService. Tolsma inquired if PeopleService would like to speak regarding the matter. PeopleService Regional Manager Greg Stang stated their average employee is with PeopleService for ten years. Shawn has been with the company 6 years. Stang discussed how difficult it is to control turnover, but they are at average or below average for turnover. Hughes inquired if the City could put in the contract requiring someone with five years of experience or better with the company. Tolsma stated if we had a standardized system, yes, but relevant experience to Spring Park is another question. Some discussion was had on the license needed to run the Spring Park water plant; the employee needs to have a minimum of three years’ experience to have a C license. Stang stated they are already at a minimum of three years to their standards. Mike Mason stated with a contract expiration the City will normally do an extension, he is wondering why the City is motivated to go to another public works service when they have not had any problems with PeopleService. Some discussion was had on costs 4.5 years ago when PeopleService took over. Rockvam stated it would be negligent to not look at a contract when it comes up for renewal. Rockvam stated he does not have a problem with People- Service, he is looking to the future and believes they can service the City of Spring Park more efficiently. Rockvam stated the City has met on this subject several times and are seeing if they can do better. Steve Erickson questioned as to why the City is just looking at Orono why not Mound, and if Orono is hiring another person and adding a vehicle is that included in their bid. He feels like we are subsidizing another city. Rockvam stated that was included in the bid and discussion was had. Discussion was had on priority in emergency situations. Tolsma stated he spoke with Adam and was told if Orono and Spring Park had two simultaneous emergencies they would be looked at the same as if there were two emer- gencies within Orono. They have their own internal process looking at several different factors, but they will not give priority to Orono and would look at which residents are affected the most. Tolsma stated chances are minimal but if there were two simultaneous emergencies you are relying on them to make the best decision. Erickson stated there a lot of numbers being thrown around and feels like it should be a little more finetuned before deciding. Hoffman stated he had been doing some calculations and if we take numbers from the side-by- side comparison and roll in utility billing (including initial and annual costs) and divided by the five-year contract he came to $180,000. He stated at the end of the day its about $4000 more for the Orono contract versus People- Service. Further discussion was had on the calculations and in rough terms we are looking at an additional $4000 a month. Work Session Proceedings April 19, 2021 Page 3 6:00 p.m. – Council took a 5-minute break. Rockvam inquired if anyone else wanted to be heard and further discussion was had on numbers. Tolsma stated we have no history to base the engineering numbers on right now but Orono performs limited engineering inhouse and that is included. All the other numbers are based on history not just a number out of a hat, it is all average costs based on history. Stang commented the City of Spring Park is PeopleServices’ number one priority and are 100 percent committed. Rockvam stated we are too small and rely on contract services so are looking at options available to us. Erickson stated in the proposal from Orono they mentioned only 100 hours of emergency services and also asked if everything was included in these numbers as he is concerned about his taxes going up. Rockvam questioned if we are going to base the decision totally on dollar and cents or what kind of dollar amount can you put on institutional knowledge. Hughes asked PeopleService what kind of guarantee they have in place that will give the city the same level of service in Shawn were to quit. Stang stated his replacement must have at least a C water license but they do have depth with additional staff. Rockvam would like everyone to come up with a dollar amount for the institutional value in DJ and cost savings with Dan and see where everyone comes out. Chase agreed that is the intangible part and further discussion was had on putting a dollar amount on those intangible items. Hoffman stated rather than us coming up with a number we should go back and ask if this is their best and final numbers. Tolsma stated he can reach out to both sides and bring to the next regular council meeting for a vote. City Attorney Tietjen wanted to make sure council is aware this is not the type of contact where you are bound by lowest price, it is not a competitive bidding situation and not subject to taking the low bid. Further discussion was had on the PeopleService utility billing process and collections. Stang stated they would follow the city lead on how they wanted collections handled. Tolsma inquired if there is potential for PeopleService to contract a 2 or 3-year option. Stang stated historically they have done a 3-year contact so that would not be off the table. d. Consensus & Next Steps Consensus is to bring back to the next regular council meeting for a vote. 6:41 Adjourn There being no further discussion, Horton motioned, being seconded by Hoffman to adjourn the meeting.