3 5 08 City Council Proceedings Official
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
OFFICIAL
City Council, Special Session, March 5, 2008
Council met in Special Session at 6:30 P.M. in the Library Auditorium
Present: Mayor Buol, Council Members Braig, Connors, Jones, Lynch, Voetberg,
City Manager Van Milligen
Absent: Council Member Resnick
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 – Emergency Communications Center Manager
Mark Murphy reviewed the activities of the last year. Connors questioned the training
that could not be held due to staff shortages. Murphy replied that currently they are fully
staffed.
John Callahan, Emergency Communications Dispatcher, addressed the Council
regarding the use of part-time Dispatchers versus full-time and the problems this
caused with scheduling vacation and training hours. He also stated that the constant
high turn-over rate of part-time employees was negatively impacting the department’s
quality of service, liability and cost. Jones commented that the addition of two full-time
dispatchers through the Fiscal Year 2009 budget recommendation should make a big
difference in this area.
Emergency Management – Emergency Management Director Tom Berger reviewed
the accomplishments of the past year and provided a summary of the high speed
notification system – Code Red – which is being recommended for funding in the Fiscal
Year 2009 budget. Voetberg requested additional information on training for newly
elected officials. Berger explained the training would include all the small cities and
towns in the County and would include a tour of the training facility in addition to NIMS
training.
Fire Department – Fire Chief Dan Brown provided an overview of the department’s
accomplishments over the past year and the future initiatives. In response to a question,
he did explain they are looking at mutual aid agreements with Galena, Illinois and
Maquoketa, Iowa.
Police Department – Police Chief Kim Wadding explained how the additional fifteen
Police Officer positions being recommended for funding over the next five years will be
phased in and how the positions will be allocated. Braig questioned the practice of
KeyLine putting students off the buses for misbehavior and asked whether the School
Resource Officer could be used to meet the bus and take the student to where he/she
needed to go. She felt this would make more of an impact on the other students who
witness a classmate being put into a squad car rather than just being put off the bus.
Van Milligen explained he would be meeting with the Police Department and Transit
regarding this issue.
Building Services Department – Building Services Manager Rich Russell reviewed
the activities of the department. He explained that all permit fees would be increased by
15 percent in Fiscal Year 2009.
There being no further business, upon motion meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.
/s/ Jeanne F. Schneider, CMC
City Clerk
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