2 26 18 City Council Proceedings Official_Special - Budget 6 CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in special session at 6:00 p.m. on February 26, 2018
in the Historic Federal Building, 350 W. 6th Street.
Present: Mayor Buol, Council Members Del Toro, Jones, Larson, Resnick, Rios; Shaw;
City Manager Michael Van Milligen
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called
for the purpose of conducting such business that may properly come before the City
Council and for discussing various Fiscal Year 2019 city departmental budgets.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Fiscal Year 2019 City departmental budgets were presented by staff from the following
departments:
1. Water Department: Denis Ehrig, Water Department Manager
2. Water & Resource Recovery Center: William O'Brien, W&RRC Manager
3. Public Works Department: John Klostermann, PW Director; Renee Tyler, Assis-
tant PW Director; Anderson Sainci, Resource Management Coordinator.
4. Engineering Department: Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer; Bob Schiesl, Assistant
City Engineer, Deron Muehring, Civil Engineer II (Stormwater); Jon Dienst, Civil Engineer
II (Streets); David Ness, Civil Engineer II (Traffic).
The City Council had discussion with most presenters following each presentation.
Following the W&RRC presentation, the City Council reached consensus (Shaw, Rios,
Larson, Del Toro) on reconsidering the elimination of the electrician position for this de-
partment at the February 28, 2018 budget hearing. Responding to questions from the City
Council, City Manager Van Milligen and W&RRC Manager William O'Brien provided in-
formation in support of the elimination citing cost savings from technical automation at the
Center and utilizing other in-house, certified talent. Mr. Van Milligen reiterated that the
request is not a move to outsourcing the work.
Public Input: John Pregler, 1525 Pego Court; and Mike Reinert, W&RRC electrician,
965 Kane Street, each spoke in opposition to eliminating the position citing the specialized
nature of the work, OSHA concerns, and loss of institutional knowledge. Mr. Pregler re-
quested a deeper study of the issue before a decision is made.
There being no further business, upon motion the City Council adjourned at 9:38 p.m.
/s/Kevin S. Firnstahl, CMC, City Clerk