Minutes City Council 3 7 07
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
City Council, Special Session, March 7, 2007
Council met in Special Session at 6:30 P.M. in the Library Auditorium
Present: Mayor Buol, Council Members Braig, Cline, Connors, Jones, Lynch,
Michalski, City Manager Van Milligen
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called
for the purpose of discussing various City departmental budgets.
The budgets for the following City Departments were discussed: Emergency
Communications Center, Emergency Management Office, Fire Department, Police
Department, and Building Services Department.
Emergency Communications Center – Council questioned whether the current staffing
level was adequate and Emergency Communications Center Manager Mark Murphy
stated that this was something he was looking at. Jones requested that owner
information for dog, cat and bike licenses be accessible at the Center when City Hall is
closed.
Emergency Management – Jones commented that names of the four available
Emergency Operation Centers (EOC’s) need to be explicit to avoid confusion. Michalski
stated that citizens need to be informed on what to do in emergency situations.
Emergency Management Director Tom Berger replied that they are working on getting
this information out to the public.
Fire Department – Jones questioned whether the Fire Marshall was going to be trained
as a law enforcement officer. Fire Chief stated they are looking at other options at this
time such as training with the Police Department. David Beaves, President of the
Dubuque Professional Firefighters’ Association, addressed the Council regarding the
proposed changes to the rank structure on the two front line medical units. He stated
the Association was in support of the change with regard to creating two Captain and
four Lieutenant positions; however, they were opposed to the proposal of replacing the
remaining Medical Officer positions with Firefighter/ Paramedic positions, through
attrition. He stated the main concern was that the quality of care would be
compromised. Another concern was the tangible benefit of having two Medical Officers
working together as a team versus the proposed possibility of having rotating partners.
Jones moved to modify the proposed improvement package to change six Medical
Officer positions to two Captain and six Lieutenant positions, through attrition, and the
remaining six positions be retained as Medical Officers. Seconded by Braig. Motion
carried by the following vote: Ayes - Braig, Buol, Jones, Michalski; Nay - Cline,
Connors, Lynch.
Michalski expressed concern regarding the delay in construction of an elevator at Fire
Headquarters and urged that this not be pushed out any further.
Police Department – Braig questioned what the make-up of the department was at this
time. Police Chief Kim Wadding replied that currently there were two minorities and
twelve to fourteen females, with the remainder Caucasian males.
Building Services Department – Michalski expressed appreciation for the proposed
installation of security cameras at the City Hall Annex. Katrina Wilberding, Human
Rights Commissioner and chair of the Commission's ADA subcommittee, spoke in
support of the additional part-time Building Inspector position to assist with American
with Disabilities Act (ADA) inspections.
There being no further business, upon motion meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m.
/s/ Jeanne F. Schneider, CMC
City Clerk
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