6.1. SR 08-07-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Elk River Item Number REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION 6.1. Agenda Section I Meeting Date Prepared by 4\dministration ..A.ugust 7, 2006 ] effrey 4\. Beahen, CIlief of Police Item Description Reviewed by Do\vnto\vn Traffic Control Introduction ~r\t tlle last council meeting, tlle Council appro'v'ed the idea of looking at temporary employees tllat \vould be hired by tlle police department to \vork tlle do\vnto\vn traffic detail bet\veen August 11 and mid- October, 2006. This melno \vill address my response to that action. Discussion I lla\re been able to locate at least tlnee individuals \vho \vould be \villing to \vork tile do\vnto\vn project at a rate of $15@hour. This is a considerable reduction in \vl1at \ve are currently paying for officers to \vork tile shifts on ov"ertime. ivfore important, many of tlle officers are \vorking sL~teen 110ur days on dleir normal scheduled days as \vell as additional time on their days off; all at a time \vhen \v.e are sllortllanded. I think I speak for all tllat a primary consideration is still finding a \vay to safeguard tile officers from \vorking too many Ilours-\vhicll creates a concern for tlleir safety and \vell being. ..c\ldlougll on face value, tlle temporary etnployees are a seetningly easy fi~, there are some bidden costs associated \vitll tlleir hiring that become significant. \Ve \vould need to equip dlem \vitll se"veral sets of uniforms, a radio, appropriate foot and llead\vear, rain gear and a colder \veather jacket. Tiley \vould require initial training, albeit brief, and \vould be driv"^ing our \lehicles do\vn to tlle site each day-\vmch involves gasoline costs. Costs to equip tllese temporary employees is in excess of $6,000. \Vle don't keep spare uniforms, radios and equiplnent on l1and, so these purchases \vould need to be done no\v. Tllere is also a consideration of the risk of a rapid hire process, putting employees out in public, in a pseudo police role, in police vehicles, \vitll an expectation from tlle citizen's - that these employees be responsible for potentially acting in a role, tllat tlley Ila\re no training in. (In other \vords, they \vould not be able to respond to accidents, medicals, otller elnergency situation tllat could occur in tile do\vnto\vn area) Temporary employees \vould also require staff time in scheduling tlleir shifts, breaks and rest pel10ds as \vell as pro"\riding for co"vering potential days off. .L\n alternati"\Te is to utilize a contract serv'ice for tIus traffic detail, sometlUng tllat did not seem probable until I recently located a security service tllat does provide construction traffic details. Utilizing a pri"\rate contractor \vould eliminate the need to pro"\Tide tlle equiptnent, co\rer breaks and potential days off as \vell as retnovmg tlle responsibility to train the assigned employees. TIle cost is higller than the temporary C:\Documents and Scttings\tallard\Local Scttings\Temporary Internet r::iles\OLKF\REQUEST COUNCIL ACTION (4) (2).doc